The police will take your property, yet you are never convicted of a crime. Sounds like an Orwellian fantasy in a dystopian universe, far from something that would happen in modern America, right? Think again. This practice is known as "civil asset forfeiture." Civil asset forfeiture happens when a person’s property is permanently taken from them even though they never were convicted or pled guilty to a criminal offense. Property taken through asset forfeiture is theoretically used in the commission of a crime or obtained through criminal activity, such as drug trafficking.
It's a way for law enforcement officials to seize millions of dollars worth of cash and property every year. Depending on state law, the law enforcement agency generally gets to keep the profits from the sale of these assets in many cases. Some have called it "policing for profit" or highway robbery, others believe it's a valuable tool that aids law enforcement and helps weaken criminal organizations by hitting them in the wallet, so to speak.
If they are not careful the results can be wrong and they might mess up the evidence. The evidence is so critical to what ever they have to solve. Again tho, The results can also be wrong, and they could mess up something really bad.
