The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation offers advice to Canadians travelling in the U.S., via its CBCnews website:
U.S. police are operating a co-ordinated scheme to seize as much of the public's cash as they can.
More below the orange croissant.
Here's the official word (under the Laws & Culture tab) from the Canadian government on travelling into the U.S. carrying large amounts of cash:
There is no limit to the amount of money that you may legally take into or out of the U.S.. However, if you carry more than US$10,000 in monetary instruments (such as U.S. or foreign coin, currency, traveller’s cheques, money orders, stocks or bonds) into or out of the U.S., or if you receive more than that amount while in the U.S., you must file a report (Customs Form 4790) with U.S. Customs. Failure to comply can result in civil and criminal penalties, including seizure of the currency or monetary instruments.
What follows is in the form of advice to travelling Canadians, but would seem to apply equally to others, including Americans on the roads within their own country.
Whether you are above the $10,000 reporting threshold or not, if you are carrying cash, American cops may decide to confiscate it, if you are pulled over for even a minor traffic violation.
CBC:
There’s a shakedown going on in the U.S., and the perps are in uniform.
The article describes what's going on as a "vast, co-ordinated scheme" to grab cash from unsuspecting drivers. You might be pulled over for some seemingly minor traffic offence, and then the cop starts asking questions. Who are you, where did you come from, where are you going. And then, under the guise of being vigilant against drugs or terrorist weapons, requests to search your car.
What he’s really looking for, though, is money.
If you have any significant amount of cash, either in the car or on your person, you will likely, according to the article, be leaving the scene without it. The officer may very well offer a waiver for you to sign in exchange for taking your cash. If you refuse to sign, he might take the cash anyway, claiming that it could be the proceeds of drugs or terrorist operations.
Either way, you almost certainly won’t be charged with anything; the objective is to take your money, not burden the system.
So, you can go to court to get your money back. But the burden becomes upon you to prove that your cash isn't ill-gotten. The process may drag on for years, and you have to show up in court in the jurisdiction to defend yourself. Expensive lawyers will be involved. They are counting on you to give up, and they get to keep the cash. This may explain why the advisory is targeted at travellers: it is more of a burden to survive the process from out of the country, as opposed to locals. Less than 20% of the individuals targeted, formally challenged to get their money back; of these, nearly half were successful.
Authorities claim it’s legal, but some prosecutors and judges have called it what it is: abuse.
The powers of search and seizure were upgraded in the wake of 9/11, and have proved to be very profitable for law enforcement. According to the
Washington Post:
A thriving subculture of road officers on the network now competes to see who can seize the most cash and contraband, describing their exploits in the network’s chat rooms and sharing “trophy shots” of money and drugs. Some police advocate highway interdiction as a way of raising revenue for cash-strapped municipalities.
The laws that permit this sort of abuse were originally intended to enable law enforcement to legitimately target drug dealers, or others laundering large amounts of cash, in million dollar territory. The abuse comes about when they seize cash amounting to a few thousands of dollars from otherwise law-abiding motorists who get pulled over for minor infractions. Police trainers are actually teaching and encouraging this activity. The cash is used by police departments to purchase equipment, or in some cases the cash goes into municipality coffers.
The numbers are staggering:
There have been 61,998 cash seizures made on highways and elsewhere since 9/11 without search warrants or indictments through the Equitable Sharing Program, totaling more than $2.5 billion. State and local authorities kept more than $1.7 billion of that while Justice, Homeland Security and other federal agencies received $800 million. Half of the seizures were below $8,800.
The advice given to motorists is to answer all police questions politely, but without extra verbage. Ask if you are free to go. Don't have litter in the car, which apparently gives officers an excuse to have a more detailed look. Don't use breath fresheners, or you run the risk of being suspected of hiding drug odors. Don't consent to a search without a proper warrant.
In short, don't give the cops the excuse they want to invade your privacy.
CBCnews summarizes:
As the Canadian government notes, there is no law against carrying it here or any legal limit on how much you can carry. But if you’re on an American roadway with a full wallet, in the eyes of thousands of cash-hungry cops you’re a rolling ATM.