An "inventory search" upon arrest requires constitutional probable cause. Arrest does not require charges to be filed or a conviction, it only requires probable cause that the suspect was involved in a crime. An inventory search secures and documents the arrestee's/suspect's belongings while he is at the police station for the purpose of protecting the items and protecting against charges of police theft. That all seems legit to me.
However, if there is some unreasonable delay and expense in getting that stuff back if the arrestee is let go or gets bail, that should be corrected
I guess you have not been around for long.....(no offense meant):-)
This practice has been severely abused by local and State LEO's. It was not long ago, as the result of a traffic stop, that I spent 4,000 dollars and two years of my time getting a pistol that was worth only 500 dollars back.
Obviously it was principle that I was invoking...
They wanted to keep the gun because it was a former police issue sidearm.
The problem is that they apparently in many cases have not been returning items even without arrest. The Cato Inst. link explains the with Civil rather than Criminal Forfeiture, non only what a person is carrying, but even homes and vehicles can be seized and NEVER returned even with NO conviction. The ACLU link documents a successful case against unfair and abusive enforcement.
http://www.cato.org/events/policing-profit-abuse-civil-asset-forfeiture