Watchdog.org Podcast

By Eric Boehm | Watchdog Radio This is “In Our Backyards,” Watchdog.org’s podcast that examines local government — because the government that is the closest to you often can be the most important, even if you don’t hear much about it. We look at city councils, school boards and even water treatment authorities, because local officials can waste your tax dollars as easily as Congress can waste them.  Government is real when it's close by, in schools and local police forces. This week, host Eric Boehm looks at a local issue that has become a national one: the use, and abuse, of civil asset forfeiture laws by local police departments to help pad their own bottom lines. Law enforcement says they are using civil asset forfeiture to shut down the drug trade, but in practice the law is being used to target often innocent bystanders who have their property seized without due process. Case in point: The Richland, Mississippi, police force.  As Steve Wilson from Mississippi Watc