NRS179.1187. Establishment of account for proceeds from forfeited property; restrictions on use of money in account; distribution of certain amount to school district; duties of school district and chief administrative officer of law enforcement agency.

      1.  The governing body controlling each law enforcement agency that receives proceeds from the sale of forfeited property shall establish with the State Treasurer, county treasurer, city treasurer or town treasurer, as custodian, a special account, known as the “................. Forfeiture Account.” The account is a separate and continuing account and no money in it reverts to the State General Fund or the general fund of the county, city or town at any time. For the purposes of this section, the governing body controlling a metropolitan police department is the Metropolitan Police Committee on Fiscal Affairs.

      2.  The money in the account may be used for any lawful purpose deemed appropriate by the chief administrative officer of the law enforcement agency, except that:

      (a) The money must not be used to pay the ordinary operating expenses of the agency.

      (b) Money derived from the forfeiture of any property described in NRS 453.301 must be used to enforce the provisions of chapter 453 of NRS.

      (c) Money derived from the forfeiture of any property described in NRS 501.3857 must be used to enforce the provisions of title 45 of NRS.

      (d) Seventy percent of the amount of money in excess of $100,000 remaining in the account at the end of each fiscal year, as determined based upon the accounting standards of the governing body controlling the law enforcement agency that are in place on March 1, 2001, must be distributed to the school district in the judicial district. If the judicial district serves more than one county, the money must be distributed to the school district in the county from which the property was seized.

      3.  Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraphs (a) and (b) of subsection 2, money in the account derived from the forfeiture of any property described in NRS 453.301 may be used to pay for the operating expenses of a joint task force on narcotics otherwise funded by a federal, state or private grant or donation. As used in this subsection, “joint task force on narcotics” means a task force on narcotics operated by the Department of Public Safety in conjunction with other local or federal law enforcement agencies.

      4.  A school district that receives money pursuant to paragraph (d) of subsection 2 shall deposit such money into a separate account. The interest and income earned on the money in the account, after deducting any applicable charges, must be credited to the account. The money in the account must be used to purchase books and computer hardware and software for the use of the students in that school district.

      5.  The chief administrative officer of a law enforcement agency that distributes money to a school district pursuant to paragraph (d) of subsection 2 shall submit a report to the Director of the Legislative Counsel Bureau before January 1 of each odd-numbered year. The report must contain the amount of money distributed to each school district pursuant to paragraph (d) of subsection 2 in the preceding biennium.

      (Added to NRS by 1989, 1789; A 1991, 2287; 2001, 876; 2003, 2528)