Earlier this week, Todd Feathers introduced us to Equitable Sharing, and how police work with the DOJ to get around some state’s restrictions on civil forfeiture funds. But what about states where those restrictions aren’t so strict? Houston PD provided a detailed look at police property seizures in Texas, and it isn’t pretty.

The Department of Justice makes billions of dollars each year through deals with state and local police forces that can act as loopholes in more stringent state laws governing how much money police get to keep when they take a person’s property without pressing charges.

What started as an attempt to re-create a Pulitzer-winning investigation into racial bias and asset forfeiture became a crash course in just how differently agencies can do the same thing,