There has been a lot of chatter lately about the state's new contract with the ERAD group. For those of you that don't who they are, in a nutshell
ERAD is a company that assists law enforcement agencies in seizing money stored on magnetic strip cards, predominately under the guise of asset forfeiture. They do this for an initial set up and equipment fee and then a set percentage of all money seized. This arrangement is similar to percentage agreements with
Desert Snow, a company that teaches asset forfeiture techniques to agencies for a percentage of the seized assets. While I have no problem seizing the assets of convicted criminals, the current civil asset forfeiture laws are fraught with constitutional problems and ripe for abuse and misuse. Even by otherwise ethical officers trying to do the right thing. Desert Snow's training information even further amplified this problem, but that's another topic.
