Quote from: franky1 on June 11, 2016, 12:14:33 PM

Quote from: unamis76 on June 11, 2016, 11:49:35 AM

I've also read that the company who makes these things gets a commission from seized funds, which I find rather "odd"...

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http://boingboing.net/2016/06/09/oklahoma-cops-can-use-scanners.html
ERAD Group will receive a 7.7 percent cut of all funds seized via the card readers.

meaning whether innocent or guilty your 7.7% worse off the moment the card is swiped.
and if found guilty later in court. the police get to keep the other 92.3%

This sharing of the loot with the vendor is actually par for the course. Remember that traffic light cameras are often operated with a cut going to the vendor and the rest going to the government. Also here is another example, also from Oklahoma, of a vendor getting a cut of the loot:

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In January last year, David hired himself and his top trainers out as a roving private interdiction unit for the district attorneys office in rural Caddo County, Okla. Working with local police, Desert Snow contract employees took in more than $1 million over six months from drivers on the states highways, including Interstate 40 west of Oklahoma City. Under its contract, the firm was allowed to keep 25 percent of the cash.

The entire article is worth a read and is very chilling:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2014/09/07/police-intelligence-targets-cash/

ASIDE: you can see if Desert Snow has recently or will soon be training the cops in your area here:

https://desertsnow.com/conferences

These trainings have drawn crowds of protesters in the past and it might be fun to organize a protest at one near you if that is your kind of thing.

Quote from: franky1 on June 11, 2016, 12:14:33 PM

Quote from: unamis76 on June 11, 2016, 11:49:35 AM

As for the phone with Bitcoins, they risk ending up with a wallet without any funds when they eventually get to be able to spend them.

yep store bitcoins on your phone with a phone keypad lock.
store your private keys at home in a way that they wont find it if they raided your house.
then when they are trying to bruteforce the phone hopefully you or a relative can move the funds making the old private keys useless

other advice if your using a online wallet app on your phone. set up 2 accounts.. if ever asked to log in to display balance. only log into the account with least funds, should you be in a threatened situation where they wont back off unless they move funds in your presence,making you unable to move funds secretly

Some very good advice there. However you need to keep in mind a second, most foul, area of law that comes in to play. Together with the insane "civil asset forfeiture" laws the other insane area of law is the "contempt of court" laws.

First off, the presence of a Bitcoin wallet on a phone can probably be claimed to be evidence of possibly criminally obtained funds. This means that in a traffic stop if they get your phone from you and see a wallet on the phone with a password they can just seize the phone.

Second, having seized a wallet with a password they can just keep it until you prove it is innocent. Yes, you can move your funds off the phone and let them have the phone and just walk away with your Bitcoins and replace your phone.

However there are two scenarios in which this is not the case:

1) if you are arrested at the time of the seizure

2) if they manage to find out you moved their new funds off their new phone after they seized the phone

If you refuse to give them the password or the moved funds you can be charged with contempt of court and be placed in jail until you give them the password or the funds. This is a pretty big hassle for them and a lot more work than just taking cash, pre-paid cards, unprotected Bitcoins, etc. so they would have to think the possible profit worth the effort so the amount of, or their perception of, the amount comes in to play.

The "good" news is that this would involve having to arrest and charge you with something so you start to have some rights in the process, can hire an attorney, go to court, etc.

The bad news is that contempt of court charges can not be appealed. Also for all practical purposes there is no time limit for a contempt of court charge. They can give you 30 days, bring you back to court, if you refuse again - another 30 days, rinse and repeat as long as they want.