Freedom in the 50 States

An Index of Personal and Economic Freedom

Asset Forfeiture

This category reflects the extent to which a state’s asset forfeiture rules encourage revenue-sharing with the Dept of Justice.
Choose a dimension of freedom below to see rankings on the map, or use the map to explore results by state.

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Asset Forfeiture

Civil asset forfeiture is the government’s ability to take a person’s property by accusing him or her of a crime. Often the seized cash or proceeds of auctioning the property accrue to the seizing agency, providing incentives for “policing for profit.” Typically, the person whose property is seized must file suit and prove innocence to get the property back. Both federal and state and local law enforcement engage in asset forfeiture.

We measure not only state laws, including the extent to which a few states limit federal “adoption” of state-initiated forfeiture cases, but also the amount of “equitable-sharing” revenue that state and local law enforcement agencies receive from the Department of Justice in each state. A standard-deviation change in equitable-sharing forfeitures nationwide amounts to about $4.5 billion. We give state forfeiture laws the same weight even though we have no consistent data on state-level forfeitures.