Issue link: http://lawandordermag.epubxp.com/i/109778
N early every department has an evidence room or an evidence locker or even a large evidence storage facility. Important criminal cases and careers have been lost in those same rooms just as well-maintained, well-documented, and orderly evidence rooms have helped put and keep dangerous criminals in prison. Missing evidence also prevents those wrongly convicted of crimes and serving prison time from being able to have evidence retested with new technology. When advances in DNA made proper handling of biological evidence absolutely essential, many departments discovered their biological evidence was not properly stored, could not be located, or had been improperly purged from evidence storage. Property and Evidence are Different Property includes items that are located as lost or recovered property and when properly documented in the evidence room, recovered property might be linked to criminal cases. Evidence includes items from both misdemeanor and felony cases retained for use in court cases. Steven Berdrow, past president of the International Association of Property and Evidence (IAPE) and a Certifed Property and Evidence Specialist, supervised the Property and Evidence section of the Burbank (Calif.) Police Department. He now does training and consultation. IAPE was created by and for law enforcement professionals to establish recommended standards for property and evidence departments. Berdrow stated the biggest problem with evidence is universal, a lack of control over the inventory, that ���much of the inventory in most property rooms does not need to be there and when a case has been adjudicated all associated evidence with that case should be eliminated because evidence and property not disposed of in a timely manner causes overcrowding and disorganization.��� Berdrow also emphasized that on the other end of the spectrum, biological evidence must be retained in an appropriate manner. Berdrow advocates separating evidence and non-evidentiary items, except in the case of guns, money and narcotics. These items (evidentiary or otherwise) should be stored in an area with enhanced security but easily identifable as evidence or property. Lt. Joe Latta of IAPE literally wrote the book on evidence and it is available on their website. He cautioned that biological evidence should never be destroyed in serious cases and the Innocence Project carefully monitors that. Thirty-eight states now mandate certain types of evidence in certain types of cases be retained, but every state is different in their rules. Rebecca Brown of Project Innocence in Charlotte (Va.) said Charlotte is a national model for preserving evidence, but ���simply put, it takes resources to accomplish Charlotte���s achievements.��� She continued, ���If the resources necessary to re-catalogue evidence are unavailable, what is most important is that evidence custodians preserve key evidence connected to old, adjudicated violent felony cases, so innocence claims can be addressed and real perpetrators of those crimes can be identifed.��� Federal legislation, the ���Justice for All Act��� of 2004 requires that biological evidence be retained in federal cases. There are no national standards for handling DNA evidence in major violent state cases, but there is a current national DOJfunded Technical Working Group on the preservation of biological evidence that hopes to issue guidelines on the state level by the end of 2012. All Evidence ��� Property Is Not Equal Prioritizing and preserving evidence and placing more importance on biological samples and other evidence from violent felonies than large items from misdemeanor cases are necessary common sense measures. Some evidence rooms are crammed with items that should have been returned or discarded years ago, while haphazard inventories and logs contribute to the confused messes. It is vital to know what is being thrown out. Departments have found themselves on the national news for throwing out rape kits that might have collared serial offenders or allowed incarcerated inmates to be exonerated with new DNA technology. Space is always an issue and there may be pressure to clear out evidence or a general purge of non-essential evidence may be ordered. Evidence from cold cases was lost in past years because it may not have seemed important at that time but became critical with newer advances in technology. Carbondale (Ill.) has a new, highly controlled state-of-the-art police department in the hometown of Southern Illinois University. Evidence Technician Steve Michaels explained their procedures that prevent many of the headaches faced by departments that do not have such procedures in place. After an offcer submits evidence by placing it in a pass-thru locker, evidence offcers collect the items and they are entered into the records management system, given bar codes and routed to processing, storage, or the crime lab, as appropriate. Their state-of-the-art department���s new evidence room has evidence lockers with refrigerated inserts for DNA and rape kits. What prevents headaches for Carbondale is their review and disposal procedure. Every item is given a review date, usually of six months, which means that in six months, the review date report will fag that item and if it can be purged, it is; if not, it is given a new review date. That is how they maintain control over the inventory and purge unneeded items. Items of value not returned to an owner are sold in police auctions held twice a year. Drugs are burned and guns are taken to a steel mill and melted. They maintain a strict schedule of evidence room inspections with a yearly www.lawandordermag.com 49