Texas has terrible civil forfeiture laws, earning a D+. The standard of proof required to forfeit property in Texas is just preponderance of the evidence, and an innocent owner bears the burden of proving that she was not involved in any crimes associated with her property before she can get it back. In addition, law enforcement agencies enjoy a strong incentive to seize property. In cases where a default judgment is entered—as is the case in the majority of forfeiture actions—agencies retain up to 70 percent of forfeiture proceeds. In contested cases—those in which the property owner challenges the basis for the seizure—agencies retain up to 100 percent of proceeds.

Texas law enforcement agencies are required by law to submit annual forfeiture reports to the Office of the Attorney General of Texas, but these reports are far from comprehensive. Additional information—such as itemized lists of assets forfeited, whether an arrest or conviction occurred and breakdowns of civil versus criminal forfeiture cases—would make the reports more useful. The attorney general’s office is required to compile the reports and make them publicly available starting April 30, 2016. Unfortunately, this new requirement was not in place during the data collection for this report. The Institute for Justice was therefore forced to file a Texas Public Information Act request to obtain the reports and then manually comb through them to arrive at a complete picture of forfeiture statewide. Data obtained and aggregated by IJ reveal that agencies reported forfeiting more than half a billion dollars—almost $541 million—between 2001 and 2013, a fiscal-year average of nearly $41.6 million.