Asset forfeiture reformers flared up with criticism after administrators on a Columbia Police Department Facebook page removed a poll option regarding asset forfeiture accounting.

Columbia Police Department started the group April 21, which included a poll asking, “What would you like to see on the CPD Facebook page?”

Several options were added to the poll by various Facebook users including “Columbia’s most wanted.” Keep Columbia Free President Mark Flakne added the option, “An accounting of asset forfeiture funds,” to the poll.

“I think it’s one of the most important issues regarding our local law enforcement,” Flakne said.

The option went on to receive almost 100 votes – more votes than the other options. Flakne estimated that about 25 percent of the votes came from his friends after he sent them the poll.

CPD spokeswoman Jill Wieneke is in charge of managing the Facebook page and took the option down.

“It wasn’t anything sinister,” Wieneke said. “It wasn’t that anyone here was offended by the question, or we don’t want to give the information. We’re actually working on a large Sunshine request to deal with that right now. I personally just didn’t think it was the appropriate avenue for that information.”

But some activists disagree.

“The public does have a right to know that the CPD is hiding information from the public by deleting what people are posting on their Facebook page,” Eapen Thampy, Executive Director of Americans for Forfeiture Reform said.

Wieneke issued a news release about the new Facebook group April 29. The release alluded to the poll, stating, “Users have already expressed interest in the posting of ‘Columbia’s Most Wanted’ and road closure information.”

There was no mention of Flakne’s forfeiture funds option in the release.

“They kind of played it off like, ‘Oh nothing happened here folks, move along,’” Thampy said.

Flakne said he wasn’t surprised by CPD’s decision to remove the post.

“CPD can do whatever it wants with its Facebook page,” Thampy said. “It should not be deleting stuff like that and putting out press releases that say ‘Oh, look at all this stuff that happened,’ and pretend that all this other stuff they don’t want to talk about didn’t happen. That’s kind of sketchy to me.”

Wieneke said she disagrees that transparency is the issue at stake, and reaffirmed her belief that Facebook is not the right venue for posting asset forfeiture documents.

“We’re talking about pages and pages and pages of information,” she said. “That’s not something we can post on Facebook.”

Modeled after the Houston Police Department’s Facebook group, the CPD group allows anyone to post a comment.

“I very much want that public feedback,” Wieneke said. “I don’t want to punish everybody because some people aren’t appropriate.”

Wieneke said she intends the Facebook group to be used for people to post tips and gain information about public events and crimes that are going on.

“It’s a huge public relations and crime prevention tool for us,” Wieneke said.

Flakne declined to comment on whether or not he plans to follow up with CPD about their decision to remove the poll option.