FAIRFIELD — The Solano County grand jury released a report Tuesday faulting local police departments for flawed bookkeeping and other mistakes in how they handle cash and other things they seize during criminal investigations.
The grand jury report came after reviews of police records of asset seizures done between 2013 and 2015 by local law enforcement agencies in Fairfield, Vacaville, Suisun City and Vallejo.
Local agencies were breaking the law by not conducting annual audits of everything they have seized and that they are not always reporting seizures to the Solano County District Attorney’s Office, according to the grand jury report.
The report singled out the Fairfield Police Department for breaking state law 28 times for not notifying the state’s Franchise Tax Board after they seized more than $5,000 from criminal suspects.
The grand jury’s review of the asset seizures also revealed that some police departments were not returning seized cash after no legal action was taken against the people they took the cash from.
Fairfield police in the fiscal years between 2013 and 2015 seized more than $1 million, Vacaville police seized $200,000 and Suisun City police seized only a few thousand dollars, according to the report.
May 17, 2017
Fairfield Daily Republic
By Jess Sullivan
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