In just over a decade, Texas law enforcement collected more than half a billion dollars, $540.7 million, in cash and personal property from Texans suspected of breaking the law. Known as civil asset forfeiture, this legal practice leaves average Texans vulnerable to having their assets seized by police, no trial or proof of guilt necessary.

Texas is among the worst states in the nation for civil asset forfeiture abuse. The Institute for Justice’s “Policing for Profit” report gave Texas a D+ and said the state leads the nation in average annual forfeiture proceeds, at roughly $41.6 million.

And, this kind of abuse will likely get worse in Texas. Just last week, the Department of Justice announced it is resuming its Equitable Sharing Program. Under this program, state law enforcement can earn additional revenue by using federal law to seize assets from private citizens they simply believe are guilty of criminal activity without the trouble of going through due process.

The behavior this kind of program incentivizes is hard to miss. In Texas, up to 70 percent of the proceeds from forfeiture go to law enforcement. This revenue is not only used to supplement salaries and pay for new equipment in Texas, it is also used for other important policing business like lavish trips to Hawaii, gambling trips to Vegas, and booze and a margarita machine.

So, civil asset forfeiture and programs like the Equitable Sharing Program create very strong incentives for law enforcement to focus efforts on asset forfeiture as a way to maximize budgets. And, these programs do little to reduce crime.

It turns out that very few of the cases in which asset forfeiture is used actually result in criminal charges, and even fewer are ever brought to criminal trial. This means that many of the people who lose their cash, vehicles, homes and prized possessions were never involved in an actual crime. Furthermore, it reveals that some police resources are wasted on harassing innocent Texans instead of prevengin and solving crimes like murder, assault and burglary.

And while law enforcement is only held to a more-likely-than-not standard, it is up to the private citizen to prove in court that his or her assets were wrongfully taken. Going to court, hiring a lawyer and paying all of the necessary fees can be very time consuming and expensive (often beyond the value of the assets taken,) so many people whose belongings were wrongfully taken are frequently deterred from trying to get them back.

Texas has been praised for its economic freedoms, but it has work to do when it comes to protecting property rights from asset forfeiture. Increases in property rights protections lead to more investment, more jobs, and greater growth. As some people face harder times due to oil and gas price declines, this is exactly what many regions in Texas need right now.

There are several ways that Texas could improve property rights protections by limiting asset forfeiture. The Governor of Florida just signed a bill requiring police to file criminal charges before seizing property. Other states like Montana and New Mexico recently changed their laws to require a criminal conviction before assets can be seized. New Mexico has also eliminated the revenue-seeking incentive for law enforcement by requiring that all proceeds go to a general fund instead of directly to law enforcement. Texas could certainly follow these examples to better protect the property rights of Texans.

Audrey Redford is a doctoral fellow with the Free Market Institute at Texas Tech University. Reach her at audrey.redford@ttu.edu.