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Drexel Height Fire District Firefighter Part Time Employment AVIVA Children's Services Monitor: Parent-Child Visits General MEDLEY COMMUNICATIONS INSTALLATION PROFESSIONAL Tucson RegionSeized funds often not used for crime warHundreds of thousands of RICO dollars went for uses other than law enforcement
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 05.04.2008
Pima County law enforcement agencies seized almost $24 million from criminals over the last five years under state and federal forfeiture laws.
The vast majority of that money was channeled back into the war on crime, from police dogs to small, portable computers in police cars to helping community groups fight drug addiction and gang violence.
But an Arizona Daily Star investigation of how those funds were spent over the last five years found hundreds of thousands of dollars that could have been spent on law enforcement or crime prevention went instead for banquets, promotional items such as golf tees and polo shirts, expensive office furniture and funeral flowers.
Tucson Police Chief Richard Miranda spent about $173,000 — more than 9 percent of TPD's anti-racketeering funds — on tables at community fundraising banquets, some with less than clear relationships to crime prevention, such as former U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe's retirement dinner, an Asian Lunar New Year celebration and the UA Hispanic Alumni Association.
TPD's banquet budget was more than double the Marana Police Department's entire anti-racketeering spending in the last five years.
The South Tucson Police Department spent $4,000 on polo-style golf shirts and matching bags, and $202 on about 3,000 golf tees monogrammed with the department's name.
The Tucson Airport Authority used $3,000 in Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act funds on speed bumps to slow traffic.
Officials with the agencies say those items are appropriate, foster a safer community and were approved through proper channels.
"An important part is giving back to community organizations," Miranda said. "I can think of no better way of using money that we've gotten from criminals."
But law enforcement experts and citizen watchdogs question some of the spending.
"I don't think it's a valid use," local activist Gerald Juliani said. "It should go to law enforcement. Everyone knows we're short on police. It bypasses the greatest need for the money. We don't need to be spending . . . on retirement parties."
The city and its police union are currently locked in a very public dispute over whether Tucson has enough officers.
Joseph Pollini, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City and a retired New York City Police Department lieutenant commander, called the spending "absurd and ridiculous."
"How can you justify something like that?" Pollini asked. "Something that would directly promote the job of policing and investigations, but to enhance community relations? It just doesn't flow."
Making crime pay
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, laws allow police to seize property used in drug or financial crimes or in drive-by shootings, or property purchased with proceeds from those crimes, said Deputy Pima County Attorney Tom Rankin.
Prosecutors say it's a legitimate way to take the profit out of crime and disrupt the day-to-day functions of a criminal enterprise.
Over the last five years, Pima County law enforcement agencies seized 996 vehicles, 526 guns, 30 houses and $13.6 million in cash.
Even as law enforcement agencies act aggressively to seize assets, criminals act evasively to protect their earnings.
Drug dealers have learned it's smarter to lease houses and cars so they don't lose as much if they are caught, since leased property is returned to the owner, Rankin said. And drug dealers sometimes work on credit, meaning if they get busted, the police seize a lot of drugs, but not a lot of cash.
Seized assets are split between the County Attorney's Office and the police agency that made the bust. The money can then be used to improve law enforcement or help organizations that work to improve the safety of the community.
How most of the money is spent
Fourteen Tucson-area agencies spent more than $19 million from seized assets over the last five fiscal years. Additional funds are being held in reserve.
Most went to equipment such as computers, Tasers, airplane engines and guns or to major remodeling or expansions of work space or other direct law enforcement expenses, like overtime and paying informants.
Marana bought video cameras for officers doing drunken- driver stops and split the cost of a van for the Victim Witness Program with Oro Valley.
Sahuarita, Marana, South Tucson and the Sheriff's Department spent more than $31,150 on police dogs.
Tucson spent $18,500 on a "long-range acoustical device," a crowd-control tool that emits earsplitting tones.
The agencies also spent more than $834,000 on travel. While most of that was for conferences and conventions, it also covered bringing in witnesses to testify in court and investigators traveling to interviews.
Remodeling projects
The Sheriff's Department spent more than $1 million on two major remodeling projects.
Capt. Christopher Radtke said the Criminal Investigations Division was working at 20-year-old metal desks with evidence and case files piled up in towering stacks of boxes, increasing the risk of lost evidence or paperwork. More detectives can now work in the same space more efficiently.
The department spent more than $220,000 on mobile computers for every car and motorcycle to communicate with dispatch, run license plates and check warrants.
It also bought digital cameras and recorders for deputies, subscriptions to databases, video enhancement equipment and GPS mapping equipment.
"We probably are one of the most technologically advanced departments anywhere," thanks to anti-racketeering funds, Radtke said.
Spreading the wealth
The Sheriff's Department, TPD and the County Attorney's Office funneled $1.2 million over five years to community groups that work on drug-abuse prevention or gang issues and with youths.
Beneficiaries include Wright Flight, Arizonans for a Drug-Free Workplace, Pima Prevention Partnership, Compass Health and the Arizona Daily Star Sportsmen's Fund.
But while the Sheriff's Department mostly gave money directly to programs, TPD spent almost half its community funding on tables at fund-raising banquets.
After buying a table, TPD's top brass would send out messages looking for personnel willing to attend, Miranda said.
The crime-fighting component of many of the events is hard to identify, like the $2,500 for Kolbe's retirement celebration in 2006.
Others, at costs ranging from $700 to $5,000, include the UA Black Alumni's Phenomenal Woman dinner, Tucson Urban League galas, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce's Noche de Exitos and the America-Israel Friendship League Cycle of Life Celebration.
TPD was not alone in dinner spending. County Attorney Barbara LaWall used seized money to buy tables at the State of the County and State of the State luncheons. South Tucson spent $1,400 on event tickets.
Miranda said there's no difference between giving money to groups and paying for banquet tables at their fundraisers.
Some community leaders don't buy that.
Paying for a dinner instead of giving directly to the organization means the contribution "gets watered down by 50 percent because of the cost of the meal," said Bruce Ash, a Tucson businessman. "There ought to be a serious examination" of whether using RICO funds that way was legal.
Rankin said the law allows RICO funds to be spent on community programs that support law enforcement, including events that raise the department's status or profile. "They may be developing relationships that may aid community-based policing," he said.
Pollini, the John Jay professor, said departments should use RICO funds to buy equipment, cover overtime for high-level investigations, pay informants or purchase equipment, among other options.
Miranda, who will retire as police chief and become an assistant city manager on July 1, said he makes sure department needs are met before distributing RICO funds to others.
It pays to be a team player
The experience of South Tucson shows how a small police department can turn regional cooperation into a cash cow.
Tiny South Tucson scored $1.2 million in seized assets between 2003 and 2007, compared with $1.8 million for the city of Tucson, largely by teaming up with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.
South Tucson has one police officer dedicated to working with the DEA. When a bust goes down — regardless of where — South Tucson is there to share in the booty.
Sixto Molina, who resigned as the city's police chief last summer after 10 years, said Sgt. Dan Snyder, the officer assigned to work with the DEA, was willing to work around the clock to make busts.
Until recently, the department also relied on a Labrador retriever named Officer Buck to haul in RICO dollars. Other departments that didn't have drug dogs would borrow Buck's services, entitling South Tucson to a cut of the take.
South Tucson also inherited many of the seized vehicles. The DEA doesn't bother with cars worth less than $5,000, for example, so the city claimed them and sold them at auction.
Molina, an avid golfer, said the 3,000 black golf tees with white lettering promote South Tucson. He handed them out at tournaments as "a way to get publicity for our department."
The shirts, he said, were for officers to wear at seminars and training. He said that brought an air of professionalism to the department.
South Tucson also used RICO funds to buy $412 in funeral flowers for, among others, Deputy Chief Ernesto Mejia, a leukemia victim, and Lupe Eckstrom, mother of former South Tucson Mayor and County Supervisor Dan Eckstrom.
Different perspectives
Joseph King, a customs special agent for 33 years and the Department of Homeland Security's chief of National Security for New York, said he was surprised by spending for banquet tables and golf events.
But he acknowledged, "You could make an argument that if you have a philosophy of community policing, that the more involvement with the community, the better you are."
Pima County Public Defender Robert Hirsh said the best use for RICO money is for violent criminals and a greater police presence.
"There's a whole different sector in the community that supports non-profit agencies," he said. "If law enforcement is going to spend funds on charitable organizations, they need to spend more on drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers," so those people don't commit crimes.
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