Is there a difference between seizing and impounding items?
<p>You hear both terms used to refer to broadly the same action.</p>

<p>Seizing is the taking. Impounding is a possible action after the seizure. Goods may be impounded, or forfeited, or destroyed, or turned over to the legal owner, or something else.</p>
<p>If you're hearing both terms referring to broadly the same action, it's because the cases you're hearing about are broadly the same: something is seized and impounded.</p>

<h2>Seizing</h2>
<p>Seizing describes <strong>the act of taking an item</strong> from its (supposed) owner or controller. It has no length of time ascribed to it. For example, the following things are seizing:</p>
<ul>
<li>The policeman takes the keys of a motorcyclist to prevent them from fleeing during a traffic stop.</li>
<li>The police investigating the murder take a knife used to stab a victim to do tests on it.</li>
<li>The police take the firearm of the felon away to be destroyed.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Impounding</h2>
<p>Impounding describes <strong>the act of storing a seized item</strong> until it is released or sold off for non-retrieval.</p>
<ul>
<li>The phone seized from the student using it in class is <em>impounded</em> on the teacher's desk/the secretary office/...</li>
<li>The car seized from the drunken driver is stored at the <em>impound lot</em>.</li>
</ul>
<p>Every act of impounding requires a seizure, but not all seizures are impounding the item.</p>

legal-terms police