The word came just before Christmas, in a conference call from officials with the U.S. Department of Justice.
Like a large lump of coal in the stocking of local law enforcement agencies across the U.S., federal officials announced that the Equitable Sharing program, better known to most people as the asset forfeiture program, was being suspended indefinitely.
Niagara County Sheriff James Voutour called the announcement a "punch in the gut" to local law enforcement. Falls Police Superintendent Bryan DalPorto said the loss of asset forfeiture funds will have an immediate impact on his department's budget.
"One of the only things we have that hurts drug dealers is taking their toys and their money," DalPorto said.
When the program was first launched in 1984, the goal was to allow state and local law enforcement to turn the "proceeds of crime" against criminals by seizing cash and other valuables and then using those funds and items for enhanced law enforcement programs.
Since the program began, more than $5 billion has been distributed to local law enforcement agencies around the country, including those in Niagara County. In 2010 alone, more than $500 million flowed to state and local police and sheriff's offices.
The partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice is necessary because the seizures and forfeitures are authorized by federal, not state, law.
Assets seized as the "proceeds of crime" are turned over to federal authorities who administer the equitable sharing program. The feds take a 20 percent cut for the cost of administration, with the remaining 80 percent of the assets returned to the local law enforcement agency that originally seized them.
"(Elimination of the program) would completely decimate a lot of things we have done," DalPorto said. "The money and vehicles we seize are essential to us."
A Gazette check of local agencies' use of asset forfeiture dollars found that they are spent on everything from the coloring books used in DARE and other community relations programs to operation and maintenance costs for the Niagara County Sheriff's Office helicopter that is used in aerial marijuana crop identification and eradication.
Equitable sharing dollars have been used to renovate a new headquarters for the Niagara County Drug Task Force and the purchase of the Lewiston Police Department's drug-sniffing K-9 Tazer.
"Our K-9 has been instrumental for us and other agencies in the area that we share services with," Lewiston Police Chief Frank Previte said. "This makes no sense. It's local cases (that lead to seizures) and (the lose of funds) affects local communities."
In North Tonawanda, asset forfeiture funds have provided improved communications equipment for detectives and covered the costs of directed patrols that target specific community complaints.
"I think it's important that if someone has a complaint that they can see we are addressing it," NT Police Chief William Hall said. "I think citizens expect that."
Hall also believes it's fundamentally unfair for the federal government to expect his investigators to work local cases with their agents and not share in forfeiture proceeds.
"I don't think it's fair," Hall said. "If my guys aren't assisting the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) and other federal law enforcement, they might not be able to do what they do."
Hall has written to New York Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand asking that the suspension of the equitable sharing program be reversed.
In the Falls, DalPorto says program funds provide for what taxpayers cannot afford, such as "street cars" that can be used for undercover investigations.
Early in 2015, then-U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder halted some aspects of the equitable sharing program citing concerns that some police agencies were seizing assets without having a reason to believe they were the "proceeds of crime."
At that time, roughly $1.2 billion was being processed for distribution back to local law enforcement agencies.
But in the December conference call, Department of Justice officials said that money would now be kept by the federal government. The DOJ said it was implementing "cost reduction measures to absorb the combined $1.2 billion rescission" that was part of the federal budget bill passed by the Congress and signed by the president.
"What's odd is the money that's in the equitable sharing accounts comes from local police agencies," Voutour said. "What they've done is they've decided to balance the federal budget with our money."
Voutour also pointed out that, unlike the strict guidelines for spending asset forfeiture money that apply to local police agencies, the cash that the DOJ is keeping is going into the federal general fund balance and could be "spent on anything."
"It boggles the mind, what they're doing here," Voutour said.
Voutour said a nationwide coalition of state and local police officials is already coming together to try to reverse the changes to the program.
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