A chief deputy to Attorney General Kris Kobach urged legislators, libertarians and law enforcement leaders to get behind a compromise bill that would deliver substantial reform of Kansas’ civil asset forfeiture system mired in controversy, but the source of millions of dollars for Kansas law enforcement agencies. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)
TOPEKA — Kansas chief deputy attorney general Daniel Burrows defended a hard-fought attempt to overhaul the state’s civil asset forfeiture law and urged rival factions to avoid the temptation to march to their castles, close the drawbridges and shoot arrows at each other rather than agree to support meaningful reform.
He said Attorney General Kris Kobach, who oversees the Kansas Bureau of Investigation as well as a team of state prosecutors, committed to a mission of protecting citizens’ rights and the ideals of limited, constitutional government. In that vein, he said the attorney general had during the past year stopped thousands of dollars in unwarranted forfeiture claims from moving forward and maneuvered behind the scenes to develop a compromise acceptable to civil libertarians, defense attorneys, law enforcement agencies, prosecutors and other interested parties.