Trump administration to make it easier for police to seize property

'No criminal should be allowed to keep the proceeds of their crime,' says US Attorney General, Jeff Sessions

Jeff Sessions said 'no criminal should be allowed to keep the proceeds of their crime' (AP)

Donald Trump’s administration is to make it easier for police to seize property from US citizens.

The US Justice Department will allow law enforcement officials to confiscate items, including cash and cars, from people who have not been found guilty of any wrongdoing.

Officers will not need a warrant to take the possessions and nor will there need to be evidence that a crime has been committed.

In order to get their property back, owners will be required to prove that it was not involved in any criminal activity.

Asset forfeiture, as the practice is called, is controversial because, critics say, it allows law enforcement officials to seize people’s private possessions with few checques or balances and without needing to prove wrongdoing on the part of the owner.

However, Jeff Sessions, the US Attorney General, said the policy would be extended as the Trump administration makes it easier for property seizures to take place.

“With care and professionalism, we plan to develop policies to increase forfeitures,” Mr Sessions told prosecutors in the state of Minnesota. “No criminal should be allowed to keep the proceeds of their crime”.

His predecessor, Eric Holder, had tightened rules relating to asset forfeiture after concerns that property was being seized without any judicial oversight and without the owner ever being charged with a crime.

Local law enforcement agencies use seized items to pay for expenses, and some had complained that Mr Holder’s changes were depriving them of a key source of income.

Under Mr Trump, the Justice Department sees asset forfeiture as a way to strip suspects of the proceeds of their activities, to deter crime and to compensate crime victims.

Plans to expand the policy are part of Mr Sessions’ and Mr Trump’s tough approach to crime.

The Attorney General urged prosecutors to pursue the toughest punishments against most crime suspects, echoing a directive he issued earlier this year.

He reiterated that the top law and order priorities of the Trump administration are cracking down on illegal immigration and quashing violent crime.

Mr Sessions also stressed the need to tackle gang activity and encouraged prosecutors to target drug offenders, saying “drug offences are not nonviolent crimes, as most of you all know.”