Police auctions are held to dispose of vehicles and surplus/obsolete equipment. They are also held for such things as recovered items, unclaimed or stolen goods, seized items and much more.
The Police departments own equipment, such as cars, communication equipment, cameras and more that ends up at auction is generally well maintained having strict maintenance schedules, although care should still be taken as they may not receive the T.L.C that a private owner/operator would give.
A huge array of various property can be found at a police auction, can include:
- Sporting equipment
- Motor vehicles
- Auto accessories
- Furniture
- Electrical goods
- TV’s, video/DVD, stereo, CD players etc.
- PlayStations and game consoles
- Power tools and equipment
- Bikes of all types
In the US, police departments hold auctions quite regularly in which the public will get a chance to scoop up some of the goods police have confiscated from criminals, including trucks, bicycles, boats and computers along with surplus equipment like retired police cruisers and office equipment.
Police Auctions are also popular in Australia, although not generally run by the police station itself, the auction will be handled by a third party auctioneer service in many cases. Notices for these auctions can generally be found in the Saturday edition of the major news paper in your region.

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3 responses so far
1 JD // Sep 5, 2010 at 3:43 am
In Queensland also check the Public Trustee who auction off gov surplus and often have ex-police equipment and unclaimed goods
2 admin // Sep 7, 2010 at 6:29 am
great tip JD, thanks for sharing. For anyone thats intrested in QLD auctions the Public Trustee website is listed in the auction room directory.
3 Sam G Brisbane // Mar 24, 2012 at 12:35 pm
Most police seized goods, recovered goods and proceeds of crime are disposed of by third party auction rooms. In Australia always keep an eye on your local paper classifieds, unlike the US where some police stations will hold their own auctions.
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