This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Monday, June 22nd, 2015.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Police like to seize property without charging the owners with a crime.

In Texas, as in many other states,

reform is coming.

But in the Lone Star State, more than a dozen pieces of legislation to fix so-called civil asset forfeiture

failed in the final days of the legislative session. Arif Panjou, an attorney, Farrif

Rif Panjou, an attorney at the Institute for Justice discusses the reforms that would

have rolled back policing for profit.

Asset forfeiture has taken on a sort of a new life as a public policy issue just in in recent years with some high profile cases.

Of course the Institute for Justice has played a role in making some of those cases

a high profile. A long time ago the Cato Institute really began working on this

issue with people like Henry Hyde there was reform but the state level is where a lot of this has to happen. So Texas had a unique

opportunity in this last legislative session to make some changes, what happened?

Well, there were 13 pieces of asset forfeiture reform legislation introduced,

both in the Texas House and in the Texas Senate.

Every single one died before the end of session.

And it's not because people weren't out there trying to advocate for reform,

attending committee hearings, and providing compelling testimony.

And it's not because you had one party or another party jockeying for political position.

These bills were introduced and sponsored by members of both parties, Republicans and Democrats.

It really failed because law enforcement lobbied hard to preserve the status quo.

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