Illinois County Admits to Seizing Cars To Generate Cash

The Sauk Valley.com reports:

Lee County will spend up to $10,000 to outfit its parking lot on South Hennepin Avenue to create an impound lot for the Lee County Sheriff.

The sheriff's department intends to put the space to good use, seizing more cars involved in crimes. Those cars will be auctioned off to fill county coffers.

"If we have an area we can put vehicles, we'll seize more vehicles and sell vehicles," said Lee County Sheriff John Varga. "It gives us an opportunity to seize more and generate money for the county."

Varga requested an impound lot because police departments now are able to seize more cars through new drug seizure and forfeiture laws.

"The new laws allow us to be more aggressive on crime. That's why you haven't seen this before," said Assistant State's Attorney Andrew Bollman.

Now that the sheriff's department no longer leases out the county-owned lot on South Hennepin Avenue, across the department's building, to Dixon Police, it can use the area to hold cars.

Officials will fence off a 40- by 60-foot area in the southwest corner of the lot that Varga said will hold roughly eight cars.

As of Tuesday, the department has four seized cars, three of which occupy its three-car garage. In the past year, Varga has had to turn down seizing two cars because the department didn't have any place to put them.

In the past five years, the county
paid $61,200 in storage fees for seized vehicles. The new lot, aside from the upfront costs, would eliminate these storage fees.

The Lee County Board has approved up to $10,000 to create the impound lot. The estimated cost for putting slats in the existing fencing and erecting additional fences would be about $7,600, according to John Nicholson, properties committee chairman. That money would come from the county's capital improvement repair fund, he said.

In the private sector this is called theft.