IAPE Monthly Newsletter & Updates |
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Ask Joe...Each month, IAPE's primary instructor and Executive Director, Joe Latta, answers one of your questions pertaining to your everyday property and evidence room questions.
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Dear Joe,
I have recently moved from the police department to the sheriff’s office in the community. In the organization where I worked the as the property officer. I could only release or destroy evidence with the case officer’s approval. In my new job my boss said the case officers (detectives) don’t have the time to research the status of the cases and it’s okay for me to research and purge from the system without their approval and she will “back me”. Any thoughts?
Thank You,
Manny
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Dear Manny,
Many thoughts! Often the Property Room Staff, takes on the responsibility of the researching and purging because the Case Officers don't have enough time or will not respond to any request to approve the release or destruction.
In many cases, Property Room Staff assums the responsibility for this task as no one else will do it. In essence, it defaults to the Property Officer. Having said that, the ideal scenario and would meet the IAPE Professional Standards is for a request to be disseminate to the Case Officer asking their approval and obtaining approval for removal from the inventory.
One of the issues for discussion is where Property Room researches the case, finds it has been adjudicated, suspect when to prison and the evidence is dispositioned. Easy!
Unfortunately, there was an item in that case that is related to an entirely different case, and only that case office is aware of.
Six months later the Case Officer is asking why you destroyed and projects displeasure with you because it was destroyed! I would suggest when this happens the Property Officer becomes very reluctant to ever destroy anything every again and we make end up with items in the inventory being held even longer.
My advice if your department is not willing to hold Case Officers responsible for their evidence the department needs to have a written policy that may insulate the Property Officer, as they only following policy.
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Below is the new IAPE Professional Standard related to authority in signing off evidence.
15.5. AUTHORITY TO PURGE
- 15.5.1. The final authority to purge general evidence from the Property Room should be reviewed and authorized by the case officer or designated personnel authorized by policy.
- 15.5.1.1. Policy should define whether the prosecutor or courts need to be involved in the final approval process.
- 15.5.1.2. Policy will define specific circumstances where Property Room personnel have authority to conduct the review and purging process without approval from the case officer.
- 15.5.1.3. Policy will define who is responsible for purging decisions for certain exceptions such as Found firearms.
- Standard 15.5 Authority to Purge
- Reasoning: The first step in the review and purging process is to define who the decision maker is that can authorize items to be released, destroyed, etc.
- To provide the highest level of transparency and integrity or checks and balances to any purging system there must be a separation of duties between the keepers of the evidence and decision makers. “Segregation of duties” is an internal control designed to prevent error and fraud by ensuring that at least two individuals are responsible for the separate parts of any task”.
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Thank you,
Joe Latta
Executive Director
International Association for Property and Evidence
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Celebrating our 30th Anniversary with you by hosting 30 classes
across the country in 2023!
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World Class Training in “Best-Practices” For
Evidence & Property Room Management
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We offer dozens of classes per year across the U.S. and Canada, taught by current and former law enforcement officials with extensive real-world experience in management of property and evidence. This two-day course is ideal for those responsible for, or actively involved in, the operation, supervision or management of a Property and Evidence Unit. All training topics address best business practices and professional standards.
Registration to any 2-Day class now includes the digital download of
"Property and Evidence By The Book" 2nd Edition.
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2023 2-Day Evidence Management Training Classes |
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May
Commerce City, Colorado**
**2-Day & 1-Day Supervisor Class
Duluth, Minnesota*
*5 Seats Left
Allison Park, Pennsylvania
June
Las Vegas, Nevada
Auburn Hills, Michigan
Hurst, Texas
Burbank, California
Humble, Texas
July
College Park, Maryland
Benton, Arkansas
Joplin, Missouri
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August
South San Francisco
Whitehouse, Ohio
Ruston, Louisiana
September
High Point, North Carolina
Massillon, Ohio
October
Nashville, Tennessee
Pass Christian, MS
Ewing, New Jersey
Manassas, Virginia
November
Des Moines, Washington
December
Hutto, Texas
Burbank, California
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Need Training Right Now?
IAPE also offers ONLINE TRAINING
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The Full online course class option is a great choice if you want much of the same training as the Live classes but without the travel and time away from the department. The IAPE Property and Evidence Management video Course is approximately 14 hours in length and was prepared by Law Enforcement Personnel for Law Enforcement Personnel. Completion of the course meets the training requirements for becoming a Certified Property and Evidence Specialist (CPES).
*Registration to any 2-Day class now includes the digital download of
"Property and Evidence By The Book" 2nd Edition.
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COMMENTARY:
Several months ago, we reported this disaster on the IAPE website. In several news reports it; appears the cause of the fire in this 100-year-old building may have been an electrical problem and an extremely old facility. The fallout from the fire is from the legal community because old DNA for aged felony cases has been lost. Moving forward, for all Property Room professionals, we must be vigilant and make sure any fire life systems (sprinklers, smoke detectors, etc.) are property maintained and routinely inspected. Many departments are storing aged property and evidence in remote facilities with less than adequate protection against fire and weather for some of the agency’s most important unsolved murders and rapes.
Share this information with management and make sure your facilities are up to the challenges of a fire or weather related incident .
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Eight barrels of evidence recovered from NYPD warehouse blaze, advocates still seek answers.
The evidence warehouse at 700 Columbia St stored both biological evidence and impounded vehicles.
March 30, 2023
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Over three months after the fire that ripped through a Red Hook warehouse, which stored decades-old New York City Police Department evidence, legal advocates are still seeking answers from the city about how it plans to address the impact it may have on pending criminal and exoneration cases.
Just eight barrels of evidence, which are currently "being reviewed and documented," survived the three-alarm blaze, according to the police department but the Legal Aid Society says it still does not know which of its past or ongoing cases have been affected by the fire.
Despite penning several letters, the organization said it has not been contacted by any city agencies regarding the destroyed evidence at warehouse at 700 Columbia St that stored both biological evidence and impounded vehicles.
The fire department determined last week that an electrical blowout in a conduit leading to an exit sign was the cause of the blaze.
The police department said after the Dec. 13 fire it would produce an itemized list of everything inside the Erie Basin warehouse as part of the investigation — and that the NYPD's "property specialists" would determine what had been damaged and what could be salvaged but that has yet to be published.
"Virtually all the evidence that was located within the Erie Basin Hanger was destroyed, with the exception of eight barrels, which are being reviewed and documented," a police spokesperson said in a statement Tuesday, adding that the department is working closely with the District Attorney's offices, on a case-by-case basis, to verify the location and status of each specific evidence request.
'New Yorkers deserve answers'
Legal Aid said its request for a full list of evidence impacted by the fire and the names of the affected cases have gone unanswered for months and that it was appalled at the lack of urgency from City Hall, the NYPD and the City's District Attorneys to address the issue.
The organization is calling for a coordinated effort by the City to ensure that the accused and wrongfully convicted are not punished as a result of the fire and the subsequent fallout.
"Anything less would be an egregious miscarriage of justice," said Jenny S. Cheung, supervising attorney of the DNA Unit at The Legal Aid Society. "The New Yorkers impacted by the Brooklyn warehouse fire deserve answers regarding how City Hall is going to address the potential harm this event could pose to all cases."
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"No one's personal freedom should be put at risk because of this incident," Chueng added.
In addition to requests for a detailed list of evidence that was affected in the fire, a Dec. 19 letter written by the Legal Aid society to authorities asked that they develop and publish a plan of action, in consultation with the City's conviction integrity units, to ensure that the accused and wrongfully convicted are not punished for the loss of evidence.
The Erie Basin warehouse, which sits on a small plot of land that juts out into the Gowanus Bay, also saw evidence destroyed or become inaccessible because of flood damages during Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
Rebecca Brown, director of policy with the Innocence Project, said it is "high time" for the state to establish rigorous legal standards for the retention of evidence, "which would also dictate remedies for people convicted of crimes when evidence is lost or destroyed."
"While New York State has a patchwork of policies seeking to guide the proper retention of biological evidence, stunningly the Empire State lags behind the rest of the nation in establishing the requirement that biological evidence – for the purposes of settling post-conviction claims of innocence and solving cold cases – be preserved by statute," said Brown.
The fire department and the mayor's office did not respond to requests for comment at the time of publication.
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Got a Job? Need a Job?
IAPE is delighted to announce that we have a new section for posting a job announcement or checking job opportunities.
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Become a Certified Evidence Specialist
Along with the IAPE's extensive evidence training courses, the IAPE offers our members the opportunity to become Certified Property and Evidence Specialists.
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Have you stopped by the ShopIAPE store lately?
Check out some of our new products and save 25% using code "KRAPOLA"
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IAPE Copper Vacuum Insulated Bottle, 22oz
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IAPE Lady Justice Jersey T
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Keeper of Krapola Desk Mat
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IAPE | www.IAPE.org | 800-449-4273
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