It remains unclear what financial threshold needs to be cleared in order for unexplained wealth order powers to be used in Northern Ireland.
The power allows police to seize property where there is reasonable grounds to suspect that a person's known income would not be enough to allow them to obtain it.
It was introduced in Northern Ireland in June last year, having already been in force in other parts of the UK, but the powers have yet to be used locally.
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At Thursday's NI Policing Board meeting, the status and usage of unexplained wealth orders was raised, with clarity sought over how the mechanism worked and why it had not been used.
Assistant Chief Constable Mark McEwan said the PSNI could only use the power if a referral made by them to the National Crime Agency met a certain threshold.
He explained that the orders, which were announced as a measure that would help to target drug gangs and paramilitary groupings, have not been frequently used in any part of the UK.
"Across the UK, it's interesting that since this legislation was introduced in 2017, only four in GB have met the threshold for an unexplained wealth order," he told the meeting.
"We have a number of ways we can confiscate finances from criminals or criminal groups.
"We can have a forfeiture, seizure, restraint, confiscation or account freezing orders.
"The referral criteria is around suspected derived income from criminal activity, or beyond what they could reasonably afford.
"They are a powerful tool - we refer all our asset seizures primarily to the NCA."
ACC McEwan went on to say that around £1.11m had been seized from criminal groupings in the first six months of this year through other methods.
When Sinn Fein MLA Gerry Kelly asked what the financial threshold for an unexplained wealth order to be used was, there was no clear answer.
"I'll have to come back to you with what the actual thresholds are, but essentially this isn't about more legislation," said ACC McEwan.
"Some of the organised crime groups that are operating across the UK and Europe are dealing with huge sums of money compared to particularly locally, some of the smaller organised crime groups and paramilitary groups.
"But that is completely out of kilter to the harm that they create, so in terms of how we go about seizing their assets, we are using these other mechanisms that the NCA have at their disposal."
The Chief Constable Simon Byrne also said they were examining how best to use other powers to disrupt criminality, rather than relying on unexplained wealth orders.
"Is the model working for here, if there's an arbitrary level of, it's got to be so many millions or thousands of pounds before it triggers a response?," he said to the meeting.
"I think Mark (ACC McEwan) and I are keen that we use all the tactics available to us in the most disruptive way to frustrate criminality, so I don't think we yet need more legislation."
Both senior police officers said that they would continue conversations with the National Crime Agency about the financial threshold required for Northern Ireland and the use of the orders.
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