The law, depending on state, is probably written well. I will not dispute there are some departments that have used the law in a way it wasn’t intended. But I submit most departments don’t. In previous posts, the actions of departments cited sound like departments that are out of control. I guess people will also complain these towns are speed-traps, abusive to prisoners, sit outside bars a closing time and arrest drunk drivers, or all of the above.
I submit there are bad apples in any organization. It’s easy to pick on cops because whenever a crew shows up at a scene, at least one person will not be happy. Someone will either go to jail, get a ticket, or not get the desired result. But there are departments that do forfeiture the way it was intended. Unfortunately, most people don’t understand how the process works and seize on the outlier as the norm.
Something to consider.
https://ij.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/bad-apples-bad-laws.pdf
This report summarizes the results of an original study designed to test the incentives created by civil forfeiture law.