The Kansas Bureau of Investigation this week released the 2022 Kansas Civil Asset Forfeiture Report to the Kansas Legislature.
Civil asset forfeiture authorizes law enforcement agencies to seize and forfeit property and cash that was obtained with proceeds from certain criminal activity. Once a forfeiture proceeding concludes, the forfeited property or funds may be used for permissible law enforcement operations, or to further public safety objectives.
Civil Asset Forfeiture Reports have been submitted to the Kansas Legislature annually since 2020. In 2018, the Legislature amended the 1994 Kansas Standard Asset Seizure and Forfeiture Act to include this additional reporting requirement.
The amended law requires that all Kansas law enforcement agencies submit asset forfeiture incident reports and an annual report to the KBI through the Kansas Asset Seizure and Forfeiture Repository. The KBI then collects the submitted information and reports it to the Kansas Legislature and the public.
The report covers the period of January 1st, 2022 to December 31st, 2022. It includes approximately $4.61 million in seized property, and approximately $3.45 million in forfeited property.
A breakdown of seizure and forfeiture activity by agency is provided, as well as information on forfeiture fund expenditures.
