DOVER, Del. (AP) - House lawmakers have passed a bill providing greater transparency, while allowing significant loopholes, regarding a secretive group that doles out money to police agencies using property seized by the government through civil forfeitures.
The measure was approved Tuesday with no debate and now goes to the Senate.
While making the state's Special Law Enforcement Assistance Fund subject to Delaware's Freedom of Information, the bill also allows a police agency to submit an application for money under a cloak of secrecy while the fund's oversight committee determines whether the application could be exempt from FOIA.
If the committee decides an application is not exempt, the police agency could withdraw it within 10 business days, keeping its intentions secret.
A Senate committee has yet to act on separate civil forfeiture reform bill.
