A few weeks ago, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a new policy directive that was seeking to increase the prevalence of asset forfeiture activity across the country.

Asset forfeiture is the practice of law enforcement confiscating a variety of assets that they believe might be connected to a potential law violation. In many cases, they never need to prove any wrongdoing or even file charges against an individual, yet they possess the authority to commandeer their property.

Picture This...

Let's say that you just took out some cash from the ATM in order to go and do some shopping or to go out for dinner with some friends or to the casino, maybe you owe someone money? There could be many reasons why you might be carrying a large sum of cash on you at one point in your life.

Under asset forfeiture laws, if you get pulled over and a police officer suspects or alleges that the cash might be connected to a crime, they can take your cash.

They can do this with cash, houses, cars, boats; you name it.

And the onus will then be on you (and the legal costs) to prove in court that the cash wasn't connected to any crime. Quite often people cannot afford to go through that legal process or it's too difficult to prove the innocence of their asset and so it's simply taken and they never see it again.

Keep in mind that many states have rules in place that were established to try and curb this behavior, those rules insist that law enforcement needs to have a criminal conviction before they can take your belongings.

Needless to say, criticism against this practice has been growing for many years now as more people fall victim to the policy, and as more discover the truth about what is going on.

The asset forfeiture program has been used to seize billions of dollars worth of assets for the state.

Under the new changes from the recently released policy, local and state law enforcement are encouraged to pass their asset confiscation cases to federal prosecutors. Once this exchange takes place, the case is then going to proceed under federal law and this scenario might bring about less protections for the individual than if they had continued with a state case. This exchange opportunity allows law enforcement to seemingly bypass rules that were put into place to try and prevent widespread abuse via methods like asset forfeiture.

Civil liberties advocates maintain that there is a way for states to try and protect themselves in this matter, that is by including certain language into their asset forfeiture policies and legislation. They suggest that it should clearly dictate that there is a restriction when it comes to the ability of officers to enter into an agreement to transfer any of the seized property to federal agents.

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has said that highly controversial policing-for-profit tactics like asset forfeiture are a key tool for assisting law enforcement to do their job. But there are many human rights advocates, legal experts, and Constitutional scholars who would passionately disagree. The practice of asset forfeiture quite often violates the basic tenets of due process; where many people have their property seized without any charge ever being filed against them.