Car Seizure Laws in New York State

Paper Summary:

There are at least three counties in the State of New York that have enacted laws or implemented polices allowing for the seizure and forfeiture of privately-owned automobiles upon arrest for a Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) offense. In some counties vehicle seizures are made upon a defendant's first arrest for DWI. In every county, seizure of a defendant's vehicle precedes an adjudication of guilt. After the paper compares the laws between the three New York counties, it examines important Constitutional issues which have arisen from these policies.

From the Paper:

"Like New York County (City), Nassau County also utilizes a currently existing Code section concerning the disposition of property held by the property clerk as authority for and enforcement of the DWI vehicle forfeiture. Among all three counties examined here -- New York, Nassau and Suffolk (Suffolk County has adopted separate, offense-specific legislation) -- the rationale for application of vehicle forfeiture to DWI is that, since a vehicle is a necessary element of a "Driving While Intoxicated" charge, it is thus an "instrumentality of a crime," and is therefore governed by local law dealing with property disposition held by the property clerk of the local police department."

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