Viewers must suspend disbelief as the action escalates in “Rebel Ridge,” a Netflix thriller about small-town corruption. Yet, the cash seizure in the opening scene mirrors real life. Marine veteran Terry Richmond, played by Aaron Pierre, is traveling to bail out his cousin from jail when the police make a pretextual traffic stop in rural Louisiana.
The officers find $36,000, which Terry has scrounged together by selling his truck and his share in a restaurant. Owning cash is not illegal, and domestic travelers have no obligation to declare currency — no matter how much they carry. So, Terry assumes the police will let him keep his money.
This is when he learns about civil forfeiture, a law enforcement maneuver that allows the government to seize and permanently keep property without an arrest or conviction. Summer McBride, a courthouse employee played by AnnaSophia Robb, gives Terry a crash course in civil forfeiture while sitting with him at a diner. Nearly everything she says is true.
“Here’s where it gets real murky,” she tells Terry. “Chief gets to keep the proceeds, use it for ‘discretionary funds,’ whatever that means.” Most states allow participating agencies to split 100% of forfeiture proceeds among themselves.
The total haul across the United States topped $68.8 billion from 2000 to 2019. The result can be a perverse incentive to patrol for profit.
The more agencies seize, the more they keep. The more they keep, the more they depend on the money..