Millions of dollars intended for public schools are winding up in the hands of law enforcement agencies, according to an audit.
Last year, more than $6 million in property was seized by law enforcement, according to a Missouri state audit.
Under state law, proceeds from forfeitures are to be distributed to schools.
However, the audit shows less than $100,000 went toward public education.
Instead, the bulk of the proceeds, $2.7 million, went to law enforcement agencies.
The remaining funds were either returned or are still pending.
Local law enforcement agencies are only allowed to seize property, which can include homes, boats and cash, when the property is tied to a criminal conviction.
However, the audit revealed less than 50 percent of the cases were tied to a conviction.
Law enforcement agencies are seizing the properties through a loophole.
Federal law allows law enforcement to work with federal agencies to seize properties, often times cash, without a conviction.
The entities can then collect 80 percent of the proceeds.
Rep. Shamed Dogan said the loophole allows agencies to abuse the system.
"They use the funds to fund their agencies," Dogan said. "That money should go to schools so that law enforcement doesn't have an incentive to go after people's properties who haven't been convicted of a crime."
Dogan hasintroduced a bill that would ban the partnership between law enforcement and federal agencies, unless the property being seized is cash in the amount of $100,000 or more.
"One of the legitimate reasons for being able to do this is in drug cases, where you have people who are coming into the state of Missouri to do drug trafficking," Dogan said. "If they're carrying large amounts of cash and they don't want to explain where they got that cash then often times you can figure that that person might be involved with criminal activity."
Dogan said, in many cases, people are having their money taken from them without merit.
"In incidents where people are carrying around a couple thousand dollars in cash, $5,000 in cash, those are issues where it's not a crime to carry cash," Dogan said. "That's not any kind of proof that you're involved in criminal activity."
