A new Louisiana law will require district attorneys to submit annual reports dealing with human trafficking and the value of civil asset forfeiture related to such crimes, but the law won’t do much to reform the larger issue of Louisiana’s asset forfeiture policies, observers say.
Senate Bill 31, authored by Sen. Beth Mizell (R-Franklinton), was signed by Gov. John Bel Edwards this week. It creates a new database to monitor human trafficking arrests, convictions, restitution, fines and civil asset forfeitures, according to the state Legislature’s analysis of the bill.
Louisiana’s civil asset forfeiture policies have been criticized by organizations such as the Pelican Institute for Public Policy because they allow private property to be seized by law enforcement even if the suspect is not found guilty of a crime. Such policies can lead to frivolous seizures and government abuses, the institute said in a 2022 report.
“The bill will be helpful, and it is very narrow in that it only applies to forfeitures associated with the crime of human trafficking,” Lee McGrath, senior legislative counsel for the Institute for Justice, told the Louisiana Record. But McGrath added that a more comprehensive bill would be required to deal with the broader issue of civil asset forfeitures in the state, which often involve drug-related offenses.
SB 31 will be most helpful by helping lawmakers to understand how frequently the crime of human trafficking occurs in the state, he said.
“The real benefit of the bill is that it's recording information about crime,” McGrath said. “And a component of that important report is the loss of property through forfeiture.”
A more comprehensive bill, HB 569, authored by Rep. July Emerson (R-Carencro), failed to get out of the Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice last year. It would have put in place recording requirements for forfeitures of property that occur as a result of drug crimes.
According to a report on human trafficking released in February, Louisiana provided services to 992 confirmed and suspected victims last year. That represents a 6.4% increase in human-trafficking victims compared to data from 2021, the report from the state Office on Human Trafficking Prevention said.