Wild guess: Only because the data shown (in the article) goes back 10 years. As Civil Forfeitures started as part of the War on Drugs, I suspect it's been risin

Wild guess: Only because the data shown (in the article) goes back 10 years. As Civil Forfeitures started as part of the War on Drugs, I suspect it's been rising since the 1980's. The revenue from Civil Forfeitures are used to offset the recent (decade+?) decline in funding that local governments have. A recent segment on Last Week Tonite[1] on Civil Forfeiture highlighted local police using it as a way to shore up their coffers. Edited to add: Youtube Link [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kEpZWGgJks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kEpZWGgJks