4 ms·

And it took at least 30 years for the media to start meaningfully questioning that practice.

• mschuster91 9y ago
  I believe this is because it was used correctly (i.e. confiscating the actual profits of criminals), and started to be abused after (decades of) systematic under-funding of police departments.
  • code_duck 9y ago
    The entire way that it works - giving police a direct, personal financial incentive to confiscate personal property with no due process, arrest or official accusation of a crime - is clearly problematic. I personally experienced and witnessed systematic, flagrant abuse of forfeiture in the late 90s in a small US state. The officers involved said they were especially interested if someone could help them locate cash rather than drugs, because they got to split it all vs. only being paid for a percentage of the drugs.