An Act To Amend Certain Record-keeping and Reporting Requirements Imposed on State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies and the Department of Public Safety
Sec. 1. 15 MRSA §5825, as corrected by RR 2017, c. 1, §9, is amended to read:
§ 5825. Records ; reports
The records must be open to inspection by all federal and state officers responsible for enforcing federal and state drug control laws. Persons making final disposition or destruction of the property under court order shall report, under oath, to the court the exact circumstances of the disposition or destruction.
SUMMARY
This bill amends the laws regarding asset forfeiture-related record keeping to clarify that records of property that is forfeited to law enforcement agencies must be maintained by those agencies and to change the specific information that must be included in those records. The bill also provides that such records are open to inspection by anyone. The bill provides that reports concerning the transfer of property held by the Department of Public Safety and then ordered by a court to be forfeited to another governmental entity must be provided upon request to the Commissioner of Administrative and Financial Services and the Office of Fiscal and Program Review. The Department of Public Safety's reports must account for any such forfeiture that occurred during the 12 months preceding such a request. The bill eliminates the current law that requires the Department of Public Safety to provide these reports at least quarterly to the Commissioner of Administrative and Financial Services and the Office of Fiscal and Program Review and the current law that requires the Department of Public Safety to maintain a centralized record of property seized, held by the department and ordered to the department, including an estimate of the fair market value of items seized.