Imagine you are driving down the highway, on your way to buy a new car. You have $2,000 in cash (or more) in your backseat because you are buying it from a private owner.

A few minutes later you see police lights light up behind you and you then realize you've been speeding. What if instead of just getting a speeding ticket, they notice the bag of cash in your backseat and decide to take it?

This is called civil forfeiture: the laws and regulations that permit the government to seize assets without filing criminal charges.

The best way to explain this is by saying that your items (in this example, your cash) is under investigation and under trial, but you are not. This could happen if the cops maybe assume you are drug dealing, or transferring the money to buy a large amount of drugs, or just if they see a reason to. There are very little restrictions the police have in this matter.

Assets they can take under civil forfeiture include cash, houses, and cars.

According to FBI.gov, the ability of the government to forfeit property connected with criminal activity can be an effective law enforcement tool by reducing the incentive for illegal conduct.

There are positives to this law and there have been many times when the forfeiture of assets, say, picked up from a car pulled over, has stopped the process of drug trafficking.

This video explains it best and shows the best examples of cases where civil forfeiture has helped and where it has had it's disadvantages.

In the video, a sheriff is under question and when asked about the limits of forfeiture, he stutters and basically says that they have no restrictions. This is proven when a police department in Texas, in 2013, seized $3.5 million, plus 250 cars and 440 computers. With this money, one police department in Texas in particular, bought a margarita machine.

These are just a few examples of times when civil forfeiture has been used in the law enforcement's favor. Where do all of these items go that police take from people? There are police auctions. According to usmarshals.gov, right now, there is jewelry up for auction that was seized, yachts, smaller boats, several types of cars, and even properties with houses on them.

Now that you know what civil forfeiture is, what is your opinion? Do you think this strips us of freedoms that we would have otherwise?