I was able to find a major collection of information at our district court where every week they send a computer list to the state of all people who have been sentenced so the information can be added to individual suspect files and driver's records and whatever else they do with them. I am supplied a copy of this list for arrests by this department. I then check the list, case by case, to ascertain if we hold any evidence for the particular charge the suspect has been sentenced. If evidence is located for a particular subject on this specific charge, Ilog the case number and date he was sentenced in a notebook. I then notify the case officer of the disposition so if they need the evidence for another investigation they can order it held pending other prosecutions. If I receive no direction, the evidence is released or destroyed after waiting until the appeal time is over.

I also cover the appeal base at district court by contacting the clerk who handles all the appeals and having her send me a copy of all appeals that are filed on department cases. When I receive notification of an appeal, I again check for evidence in my possession, and if located, attach the appeal notice to the property report so I don't inadvertently release it.

The next concentration of information is our in house computer. The investigation division has a case management program' that gives the status of all assigned cases by each detective. By tapping into this program I can determine which cases have been closed without prosecution. These would include cases where the victim refuses to testify, the prosecutor won't file or prosecute, or the case is civil, etc. If evidence is found for cases that are closed for any of the above reasons, I contact the detective to authorize disposal of all evidence.

The final concentration of information is the file used to keep the hard copy of the property reports. Since most requests for property concern cases less than a year old, I keep the hard copy of the property reports in a rotational file for the last 12 months. When I remove the reports from the rotational file to place in a notebook, I go through them case by case to see if there is any reason why they are still in evidence. By checking the computer, I can determine the status of the case and which investigator can authorize disposal of the evidence. Since most of my evidence relates to misdemeanor cases, if no arrest has been made the evidence can be disposed of since the statue of limitations has expired.

By concentrating on these areas of information, I am able to dispose of evidence that normally would not be checked on until a year after it had been entered, or until it becomes the oldest piece of evidence in custody. These procedures do not relieve me from the responsibility of periodically going back and checking on each piece of evidence because the information may have fallen through the cracks, but so far it seems to be keeping my evidence bins fairly clean.