Texas police can seize money and property with little transparency. So we got the data ourselves.

[corbe]

Texas police can seize money and property with little transparency. So we got the data ourselves.

By Jolie McCullough, Acacia Coronado and Chris Essig June 7, 2019

In January 2016, Houston police took $955 from a man they said was a gang member with a criminal history because they suspected he was selling painkillers found in his car during a traffic stop. When prosecutors discovered he had a valid prescription for the drugs, they dropped the possession charge.

But the man’s money still went into the coffers of the police department and the local prosecutor.

A few months later near the U.S.-Mexico border, a Webb County sheriff’s deputy pulled over a southbound car that Border Patrol agents had flagged for having hidden compartments. There was nothing in the compartments, but because deputies suspected it was tied to drug trafficking, they still seized the 2007 Nissan Altima. The driver wasn’t charged with a crime.

The seizures highlight the controversial but complicated nature of a common policing practice called civil asset forfeiture, where law enforcement agencies can take and keep a person’s cash and property without charging the person with a crime. Instead, the government sues the property itself in civil court — where property owners have no right to a court-appointed lawyer — leading to oddly-named lawsuits like The State of Texas v. one 2005 Ford Mustang.

<..snip..>

https://apps.texastribune.org/features/2019/texas-civil-asset-forfeiture-counties-harris-webb-reeves-smith/?_ga=2.71984474.894562045.1559914440-1966663730.1559914440

[Sanguine]

Doesn't seem quite.....Constitutional.

[GrouchoTex]

Cops used to pull over people going north on 59 in Texas, that had the KLOL runaway radio stickers on their cars, find things wrong with the vehicles, etc.
(Around Livingston, IIRC).
In Louisiana, they pull over people going down I-10, back to Texas, thinking they'll have gambling winnings from the casinos.

CAF is not constitutional, to be sure.
Flimsy excuses are used routinely to get extra money they wouldn't be entitled to otherwise.

[Smokin Joe]

Cops used to pull over people going north on 59 in Texas, that had the KLOL runaway radio stickers on their cars, find things wrong with the vehicles, etc.
(Around Livingston, IIRC).
In Louisiana, they pull over people going down I-10, back to Texas, thinking they'll have gambling winnings from the casinos.

CAF is not constitutional, to be sure.
Flimsy excuses are used routinely to get extra money they wouldn't be entitled to otherwise.

It is legalized theft. Now the highwaymen wear badges.

(not saying all police are that way, but too many)

[roamer_1]

I know a guy... who had a going concern for a while boosting cars down in Colorado and driving them over the border to Wyoming... Ditching the car in front of the sheriff's office in the first podunk county he came to...

If the car was to be repo'd in Colorado, the car would sit in a state (or maybe it was county) yard accruing fees waiting for some trial mechanism...By the time it was proven in court and released to the lein-holder, the storage fees outweighed the value of the car...

But if the car was stolen in Colorado and found in Wyoming, The lein-holder would be notified and exercise the right to repossession, pay a wee holding and processing fee (since their 'agent' was still in town). Done deal.

So Texas ain't the only one, nor is civil asset forfeiture the only way they do...