Freeze, So I Can Take Your Stuff!

Abstract

This paper reports findings from my investigation of the effect of civil asset forfeiture on the state of California. I investigated the effect that civil asset forfeiture has on different cities in the State of California. The intention of this study was to build on Baicker and Jacobson’s research by looking at the overall effects of the cities’ budget to determine if civil forfeiture (and equitable sharing) leads to an increase in the amount of total funds for the city. My hypothesis is that the amount of money seized in an earlier year predicts the total budget of the subsequent year. This hypothesis was tested using a linear regression analysis. Since forfeiture goes to both police resources and the general fund, it was of interest to determine if there is a relationship between the amount of seized assets and cities’ budget. Based on publically available data, the primary analysis, testing the relationship between civil forfeiture in 2009 and total city budget in 2009-2010, was performed. A series of other analysis were performed to determine alternative explanations for the association between seizure and city budgets.