Blogger Radley Balko has seized upon a report of unbelievable largess from the Gateway city. Like many law enforcement agencies, the St. Louis Police Department impounds vehicles used in criminal activities-- but what's supposed to happen is that the vehicles are held in safekeeping and then forfeited (and then resold) only when the suspect is actually convicted of a crime.
However, it seems that the St. Louis police were allowing officers and their family members to "rent" confiscated cars free of charge, sometimes for months on end. Officers and their families could also sometimes purchase the confiscated cars at a fraction of the cars' value.
And the whole scheme was uncovered only after the St. Louis Post Dispatch was hot on the trail of the Mayor's 27-year-old drunk-driving daughter, who was going through seized vehicles like candy bars-- crashing one after the other and going back to the impound lot for cheap replacements!
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