Confiscation is when the government permanently takes a person’s property without compensation. The government can choose to confiscate a person’s possessions for a variety of reasons including criminal justifications such as the item being contraband like child pornography or drug paraphernalia, or to satisfy the person’s debts. Confiscation differs from impounding, as there is no expectation that the property will be returned and the affected person loses title to the property.
Police are able to confiscate property they believe was used in furtherance of a crime or connected to the crime, so long as their jurisdictional statute allows them to seize the property. For example, if law enforcement arrests a person suspected of drug dealing, they will often confiscate large quantities of money they believe have a connection to the crime, or a car they believe was used in furtherance of the crime. The laws controlling the ability of police to confiscate property are often referred to as civil asset forfeiture laws. New York State’s Penal Code §480.05 sets out the limits for criminal forfeiture of property classified as the proceeds of a crime or the instrumentality through which a felony controlled substance offense was committed.
State law dictates what happens to the property once it has been seized by the police. Some states allow the police department to keep either a portion or all the proceeds from the seized property for themselves. Other states require the funds to go back to the community, such as to state schools. The federal Equitable Sharing Program allows local police to keep up to 80% of the money and 20% goes to the federal government for their investigation work, when the state and federal police work together.
[Last updated in November of 2023 by the Wex Definitions Team]