Pawn shop firms sue City of Saint Paul
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posted by Bob at Friday, April 06, 2007
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9 Comments:
Pawnshop firms sue St. Paul
They contend that the Police Department has seized pawned property in criminal cases and has never paid for it or returned it.The city believes that the actions taken by police have been constitutional.
By Dan Browning, Star Tribune
Two pawnshop companies filed a federal lawsuit Thursday alleging that the city of St. Paul has been unconstitutionally seizing property since 1998 without paying for it or even explaining what becomes of it.
The suit, filed by Cash-N-Pawn of Minnesota and Pawn America Minnesota, includes data from the St. Paul Police Department that purports to show that the city confiscated $623,000 worth of goods from January 1998 through April 2004.
According to the suit, since 1997 St. Paul pawnshops have reported items that were pawned or purchased by them to the Police Department through a computerized system. If police identify an item as evidence of a crime, they put a "hold" on it, and the shop is required to keep it for 90 days.
During that time, police officers from St. Paul and occasionally other departments would regularly show up and seize the items. They produced no warrants, and generally did not say why the item was considered evidence of a crime, the suit says.
"Once an item was confiscated, it was never returned, nor was there any information given to the pawnshops about the item's disposition," the suit says. It says St. Paul police also seized items from pawnshops owned by the plaintiffs in other cities when they suspected that the items were evidence of a crime. After property is seized, the suit says, if police can't identify or locate the person they believe is the rightful owner, they sell it at auction and the city keeps the money. The pawnshops are not reimbursed for their own financial interest in the property.
City Attorney John Choi said he believes that the actions taken by police are constitutional and proper. He said the city recently defeated another lawsuit in state court that challenged the way it set fees for the shops. "It is well established in case law that pawnshops are a heavily regulated trade and that there needs to be regulation and oversight to protect the public's interest," he said. Beyond that, he declined to comment on the matter.
Brad Rixmann, owner of Pawn America, said the dispute with the city has been brewing for years. The automated pawn system used by St. Paul requires pawnshops to obtain lots of personal information from their customers, including race, Rixmann said.
"We've got nothing to hide, but we believe that our customers' rights are being violated every day, and there's no check for this."
Rixmann said the only reason police treat pawnshops differently than secondhand-sporting-goods stores or video stores is because pawnshop customers are generally poor. "We've just been pushed too far," he said.
Cash-N-Pawn owns a dozen stores in Minnesota, Missouri and Indiana. It has two stores in St. Paul, and one each in Fridley, Coon Rapids, Crystal and Minneapolis. Pawn America has 14 stores in Minnesota; one in St. Paul and eight in other metro cities. It also has a store in Sioux Falls, S.D.
The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages to be determined at trial, an injunction prohibiting "the unconstitutional practices of the defendants" and legal expenses and fees.
Dan Browning • 612-673-4493 • dbrowning@startribune.com
Take away poor people housing and screw with their banker.
That just like when they confiscate your personal belongings and then no charges are brought against you they still do not return your belongings then either. That must be some of the perks the police get as an added bonus for their job.
I know of instances such as the police selling items they have recovered during a raid rather then turn them in to the property room as evidence where the items belong. Just more dirty work they do and get away with because they can!
Can the police access an average person's bank transactions without a court order?
If not I would think the same rules should apply to pawn shops. This is a financial transaction. "A loan institute.
Same ols hit. They do what they want and if you don't like it you can sue them.............if you have the money, and that is what they count on is that people will not have the money so the city gets to act with impunity, doing whatever it want with absoloutly no consequence.
> > " The Police " < <
Do they still take "DRUGS", from the proerty room?
For resale, or sefe use.
8:09, if you are going to make wild accusations sign your name to it. Other wise we know it is a bunch of bullshit like most the anonymous post here.
To 8:13 PM
"OOOOOOOOH"
Dirty Cops,
Make Dirty Councilmen!
how about aaron foster, he ran the property room and his best friend, chief finney gave him a free pass to do as he wants.
many of finney's friends have gone to jail for major drug dealing.
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