Oklahoma State Senator Kyle Loveless has filed the “Personal Asset Protection Act,” which would drastically change Oklahoma’s civil asset forfeiture law. Currently, civil asset forfeiture law allows law enforcement to seize someone’s assets even though the owner has never been convicted of a crime and in many instances, is never even charged with a crime. The bill, SB838, was filed late in this year’s legislative session and will likely not be acted upon this year. Senator Loveless plans to hold an interim study into civil asset forfeiture law to gather facts and build a coalition of supporters before next year’s session.

The changes that Senator Loveless has proposed are on two main issues. The first is requiring that a conviction be obtained before assets can be seized. The second, and the most likely to be opposed by law enforcement, requires seized assets to be sent to Oklahoma’s general revenue fund instead of being retained by the law enforcement agency making […] → Keep reading