Jacob Sullum Explains How Cops Became Robbers

One afternoon in
August 2012, Mandrel Stuart was driving with his girlfriend into
Washington, D.C., when a Fairfax County cop pulled him over on
Interstate 66, ostensibly because the windows of his SUV were too
dark. Lacking the device necessary to check whether the tinting of
the windows exceeded the legal limit, Officer Kevin
Palizzi instead cited Stuart for having a video running within
his line of sight. While Palizzi was filling out the summons,
another officer arrived with a drug-detecting dog. Claiming the dog
alerted to the left front bumper and wheel of Stuart’s GMC Yukon,
the cops searched the car and found $17,550 in cash, which they
kept, assuming that it must be related to the illegal drug
trade.

Stuart, who had planned to use that money to buy equipment and
supplies for his barbecue restaurant in Staunton, Virginia, was
astonished that a routine traffic stop could so easily turn into
grand theft. But as Jacob Sullum explains, taking Stuart’s
hard-earned money was perfectly legal, thanks to civil forfeiture
laws that turn cops into highway robbers.

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