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Comment by mywittyname | Hacker News Reader

I do wonder how the police get lucky so often.

Statistically, it seems like the police would very rarely, if ever, catch a person traveling with a lot of cash. First, a person would need to be pulled over (granted, isn't that rare), then the police would need to think to search the vehicle (they certainly aren't searching every out-of-town vehicle that is pulled over).

Yet, somehow they are managing to collect billions each year from civil asset forfeiture.

I suspect, without any proof what-so-ever, that police get records of large cash deposits/withdraws from banks and that information is available to them during traffic stops. These kind of cases happen too frequently to be chance, IMHO. There must be some kind of a priori knowledge available to the officers. Especially when they are nicking people going to pick up used cars from out-of-state or something.

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Cops ask people they pull over if they have any weapons or cash in the vehicle, and people are either intimidated or naive enough to answer truthfully. The last time I was pulled over, years ago, I had about $50 in my wallet and the cop asked me if I had any cash. He was visibly annoyed when I responded with "uh, your asking me if I have a wallet?" and gesticulated with the wallet I already had in my hands to show him my ID. He could already see that I had cash in my wallet, but that's not what he was asking about.

Such a fun question. "No officer", then he decides you're lying and searches you/the vehicle for "officer safety" and finds the cash. Boom, now you lied about the cash and that's suspicious so the car and cash is seized and you end up in jail for the night or left on the side of the road with no car or money.

Answer "yes" and now it's a series of questions about the money of which none of it is the cop's goddamn business, and if you feel it's none of his business, boom, you're "acting suspiciously" and cash is seized and you end up in jail for the night or left on the side of the road with no car or money.

People carry large amounts of cash more often than you likely suspect-- not everyone lives their lives the same way you do!

Particularly when traveling out of state. And presumably officers are pretty good at profiling people of the relevant ethnic and economic status that make them more likely to be carrying substantial amounts of cash.

I think it's likely if ordinary police were getting this kind of information on a regular basis we'd know. There are just too many police to keep that kind of thing a secret.

Searches of ‘suspicious vehicles’ (aka whoever a cop wants to search) is pretty common - it would be a rare officer who doesn’t find an excuse to do it once every shift or two. Requesting searches (and getting permission), or drug-dogs ‘alerting’ at will to provide probable cause is surprisingly effective, however police usually pride themselves on their ability to produce probable cause for stops and searches, and it is a rare driver who doesn’t make it pretty easy on them.

Add a decent number of general cash transactions happening overall and if anything it’s surprising CAF numbers aren’t bigger. I suspect a lot of the ‘seizures’ go unreported as they know the party won’t try to report it/fill out paperwork.

They get lucky when it’s there. There is no reporting of cash that’s grabbed when none is found. So I think sampling bias is part of it.

Police also watch for vehicles (via cell tower tracking) going from legal MJ States, going to not legal States, staying for 30 minutes, then driving back. Cop stops the vehicle after the MJ in trunk is replaced with cash. Cop plays "let's make a deal" on the side of the road.

> I suspect, without any proof what-so-ever, that police get records of large cash deposits/withdraws from banks and that information is available to them during traffic stops.

That's how I'd do it if I were in charge of a well funded gang of thieves!

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