41. What can the State do with my property if I lose the case?

Once your property is officially forfeited, the law enforcement agency that seized your property can use it for a wide variety of purposes, including paying police officers’ salaries. Receiving unregulated profit from civil asset forfeiture is a clear incentive for police departments to seize property, which is one of the reasons that the civil asset forfeiture statutes of Texas are so widely criticized. Even if law enforcement uses forfeited property improperly, you will not be entitled to get that property back.