A civil asset forfeiture program that the Justice Department called Equitable Sharing was originally adopted in the 1980s to encourage local law enforcement teams to facilitate the federal government’s war on drugs. It allowed state and local police to make seizures and then have them “adopted” by federal agencies. The policy resulted in local law enforcement departments keeping about 80% of the proceeds.
The change, which is the result of a new policy adopted by Attorney General Eric Holder, allows police to continue to make seizures under their own state laws, which often have higher standards of proof for forfeitures and sometimes require seized proceeds to go into a general fund.