This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Superior Court Hearing Today: Can APD Hide Its Cash?

Atlanta Police Department was sued over seized assets & failures to report the numbers to the public. Cobb County is violating this same law. Could they be sued next?

The Institute for Justice, a Libertarian public interest law firm, is asking for a Superior Court judge to decide whether or not Atlanta Police Department can continue to hide data about siezed cash, cars, jewelry, and more from the general public.

The issue at hand was pressed as a part of a nationwide campaign to raise awareness on, and end, Civil Asset Forfeiture while enforcing reporting requirements placed on local police and sheriff departments.

While Fulton County Police and Sheriff's departments have agreed to start reporting seized assets to the general public, Atlanta Police Department has refused to do so.  The Institute for Justice (www.IJ.org) has released a statement on today's court hearing:

Find out what's happening in Mariettawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“Law enforcement should follow the law,” said Anthony Sanders, an attorney with the Institute for Justice, the public interest law firm launching today’s challenge.  “Yet the Atlanta police simply chose to ignore Georgia law.  This is a breach of the public trust and a betrayal of taxpayers.”     -- Anthony Sanders, Institute for Justice.

It is not known at this time whether or not Cobb County's law enforcement agencies will be sued as well.  Per the Open Records Act, Cobb County Attorney's Office produced documents that reveal data from Cobb County law enforcement agencies' internal records on seized assets, but no official public reports on these assets were produced in a publicly-accessable manner as required by GA. Code Ann., § 16-13-49(u)(4)(c)(iii).  These agencies reported no cash at all in the documents I obtained.  

Find out what's happening in Mariettawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Anthony Sanders' report (Forfeiting Accountability: Georgia’s Hidden Civil Forfeiture Funds) revealed $554,156 in cash for Cobb County for 2010, and Cobb County's Public Safety Dept. furnished a memo detailing $99,750 in cash assets received by Cobb Police Department that is to be spent for "Law Enforcement Purposes."  Cobb County Sheriff's Department was not included in that memo.

For case information and status, please visit: http://www.ij.org/GAForf.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?