Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

In the past several decades the advocacy and academic worlds have raised concerns with asset forfeiture laws that pervert the incentives of law enforcement and undermine constitutional rights to due process. Despite this, very little research has looked at the consequences of a related set of distorted incentives created by the ability of municipalities to, in some states, retain funds derived from fines issued for misdemeanor or ordinance violations. While far from authoritative, in this poster I use a sample of five states to show suggestive evidence that these incentives shape law enforcement behavior. Based on this, I argue that more research is necessary and that, in the push for asset forfeiture reform, advocates should consider the related effects of state laws that allow municipalities to retain funds.