Senate approves transparency involving secretive police fund

(AP) – The state Senate has given final approval to 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 asset forfeitures.

The measure was approved unanimously Thursday and now goes to Gov. Jack Markell.

While making the state’s Special Law Enforcement Assistance Fund subject to Delaware’s Freedom of Information Act, the bill also allows a police agency to submit an application for money under a cloak of secrecy while an oversight committee determines whether the application might 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.