Change to seizure law sought

Associated Press

OLYMPIA — After the success of three ballot initiatives last week, backers of an initiative to change the state’s forfeiture law are hoping their effort will gain momentum.

Initiative 256 would prohibit police from seizing a person’s property until the person is convicted of a crime.

Current law allows police agencies to seize property at the scene of an arrest, when a warrant is served or if authorities think the property poses a threat to public safety. The government doesn’t have to win its case in court before it takes the property of the accused.

People can contest such actions in court, but it’s up to them to prove the items were wrongly seized.

Initiative 256 sponsor Ernest Lewis say the terrorist attacks and last week’s election have made it hard for them to get their message out, but he’s hoping to make progress soon.

"We’re trying to raise money and trying to get signatures in the face of what has almost been a news blackout, from our standpoint," said Lewis.

Law enforcement agencies have opposed efforts to change the property seizure law, which they say is an effective tool against crime. Police agencies in Washington confiscated assets worth a total of $4 million last year from people suspected of drug crimes. They say the money has become an essential part of their budgets during lean times.

Initiative supporters need to submit 197,734 valid voter signatures by Jan. 4 to put the measure before the 2002 Legislature. If they get those signatures, the Legislature has to adopt the initiative or put it on the ballot in the next election. The Legislature can also approve an amended version of the measure, in which case the original and amended initiatives would go on the ballot.

Legislators considered a bill to change the property seizure law last year, but it failed despite support from both parties.

"There are just some things the Legislature just does not want to touch," said Lewis, a Libertarian, retired architect and salmon rancher who lives in rural Thurston County. "This is one of them. It’s a job that’s got to be done."

Backers of the initiative include the American Civil Liberties Union and retired U.S. Rep. Jack Metcalf, a Langley Republican who is the honorary chairman of the campaign.

None of the 22 initiatives proposed to the Legislature last year received enough signatures to be considered by the Legislature. Three other initiatives to the Legislature have been filed this year: