[coryfklein]

Let's say my vehicle is stolen, and police find a vehicle at my neighbor's house with the identical make, model, and year but with the VIN sanded off. And this neighbor just so happens to operate a shipping company that specializes in shipping vehicles out of the country, but has never been convicted of anything criminal.

How would you say we should handle this scenario? We have a good reason to believe that the property is actually mine, and also that if it is not seized soon then it will be lost forever. (Since, as we all know, court rulings happen on much longer time scales.)

If you have an overly aggressive civil forfeiture law then the police can seize things when they shouldn't. But if you have none, then don't you hamstring law enforcement unnecessarily, and instead provide greater incentive for crime?

[jimrandomh]

I think you have a pretty fundamental misunderstanding of what civil forfeiture is about. Civil forfeiture would mean the police take the car, don't return it to the rightful owner, and don't charge the thieves with a crime.

Police don't need civil forfeiture to hold evidence in advance of pressing charges, or to recover stolen property and return it to its rightful owner. They only need civil forfeiture if they intend to keep the car for themselves.

[jdkee]

They can get a warrant based on probable cause signed by a judge.