Cash and other assets seized for forfeiture in criminal cases by the state’s four county police departments are down by more than half the past two fiscal years.
And while required yearly reports by the state attorney general to the state Legislature don’t conclude why, both the fiscal years ending on June 30 in 2021 and 2022 fall entirely within the novel coronavirus pandemic.
According to those reports, the estimated value of those forfeitures was $317,827 in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2022, and $372,263 for the previous fiscal year.
In comparison, $828,609 was the estimated value of forfeitures for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2020 — a time period including roughly the first four months of the pandemic. And in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2019 — the last full pre-pandemic fiscal year — the estimated value of all forfeitures was $874,308.
For the last fiscal year, Hawaii Police Department forfeitures amounted to $86,171 in cash, vehicles and other property. That’s the second highest total among the four counties, trailing only the Honolulu Police Department.
For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2021, statewide forfeitures included $290,418 was in cash and $11,498 in vehicles and other property.
Forfeiture proceeds in 2021 from Big Island police amounted to $84,135 — $52,405 in cash and $31,730 in other property — again, a total trailing only Honolulu police.
In 2021, $165,805 in forfeited cash was distributed between the four counties’ police departments and prosecutor’s offices.
Unsurprisingly, the final year prior to the pandemic yielded the highest estimated total of forfeitures.
The attorney general reported $874,308 in seized property by the four county police departments in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2019, including $656,208 in cash.
Big Island police had the largest total forfeitures that year — $221,359 in cash and $104,217 in vehicles and other property.
The four counties’ police and prosecutors shared $258,334 in cash and auction proceeds from previous years.
In addition, $972,500 was deposited into the state’s criminal forfeiture fund over the four-year period.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
