Canadians Warned That US Law Enforcement Officers Will Pull Them Over And Seize Their Cash

[Orrex]

19. Crunching the numbers?

Over the last 13 years, nearly 62,000 cash seizures have been made by law enforcement officers, resulting in a $2.5 billion haul.

Damn. That's an average of about $40,300 per seizure! Quite a haul indeed!

After all, half the seizures were for less than $8,800

Even worse! If my math is right, that means that half of the seizures average close to $72,000.

Only one-sixth of those whose cash has been seized have engaged in the expensive process necessary to retrieve their money.

Of the 62,000 who've had cash seized, I wonder how many have not ultimately been arrested or charged? Presumably, if the money is found to be unlawfully obtained, than retrieval is not an option. We can only assume that the 1/6 (who make the effort to get their money back) represent a significantly smaller number than would actually be eligible to reclaim their seized cash. And I would personally be amazed if this program were applied equally and without regard to skin color or ethnicity.

Even if we work with the article's figures at face value (i.e., that 1/6 of the victims are eligible for reimbursement), that's 800 per year for 13 years. The odds aren't great that any single traffic stop will result in cash seizure, but it's still about 800 more per year than it should be!