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Comment by johnneville | Hacker News Reader

despite the separation of duties, at first glance, it would appear worthwhile to me for the customs agencies to buy access to the CT scanners or just the output from the security agencies so they could easily detect the cash

maybe there are laws regarding privacy or just bureaucratic challenges that prevent this though

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On the gripping hand, traveling with cash should not be a crime. We already surrender so much privacy to the TSA.

I would fear that we would be hearing about more "TSA vs $20k in stacks of cash" civil forfeiture cases.

That's already the case, although not for domestic travelers it seems. See for example https://reason.com/2020/07/30/homeland-security-seized-2-bil...

for sure, I was thinking from the narrower government perspective rather than the larger "is this the right thing to do" view and appreciate the reminder to keep things in context

It's not a crime. You just have to declare it.

Of course, this information is going to be interesting to the police. So if they are the proceeds of crime, it will probably help get you caught.

It's not really any different from banks reporting every deposit of $10K or over. The government wants to track all large transfers of money both in bank accounts and across borders, so that it can identify money flows that are not being reported to the IRS and/or are the proceeds of criminal activity.

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