Fourteen years ago in Utah we overwhelmingly passed a citizens' ballot initiative to change the law put an end to seizure abuses. The standards of proof were raised and police were prohibited from using proceeds for themselves; all proceeds were to be passed to the public schools fund.
The state auditor published a report every year about all the county attorneys that were violating the law and the millions they were keeping and the illegal diversion of funds to the police and the total failure to turn over proceeds to the schools. All the major counties' police forces and prosecutors -- from both political parties -- were openly violating the law and making personal use of the seizures -- technically they were taking stolen property.
The new standards of proof were ignored by the courts. The two state attorneys general -- two from both parties -- deliberately ignored the reports that the state auditor was publishing. The press ignored the reports, too. The public re-elected the district attorneys involved.
Eventually the state legislature simply reversed the citizen initiative and restored the old civil forfeiture rules.