Civil Asset Forfeiture is a process law enforcement will use to impound, or take, assets from persons suspected of involvement with crime or illegal activity. The advantage to Law Enforcement is that they can do this without necessarily charging the owners with wrongdoing. As a civil procedure, as opposed to criminal procedure, generally involves a dispute between two private citizens, civil forfeiture involves a dispute between law enforcement and property such as a pile of cash or a house or a car. To get back the seized property, owners must prove the item or cash was not involved in criminal activity.
Many Law Enforcement agencies argue that it is an efficient method since it allows them to use these seized proceeds to further battle illegal activity. Critics argue that innocent owners can become entangled in the process violating, and in may ways simply ignoring their basic civil rights by accusing the object of the crime rather then the people involved.
The chart below shows the dramatic increase in cases over recent years.
for more information about the extent to which each agency is using civil asset forfeiture check out their pages on this site