Question:
Today the division commander asked us about having a property log in the property room. He questioned if property reports were considered logs and if we were required to keep them in the property room. He suggested that the police archives was not "good enough".

Do we have to write every item into a logbook? Must property records be kept in the property room even after the evidence has been released or destroyed? 
 

Answer:
A logbook is defined as a journal containing a detailed description of each item, with a short history of any activity related to the item during the time it has been held in the custody of the agency. 

Every state or territory has a law that governs the record keeping for items held by a law enforcement agency. The first place to check is with the local legal representative for you r agency such as the district attorney, or agency attorney who can tell you what specific laws apply to your jurisdiction. 

Property and evidence rooms are governed by the same laws as the agency. If you r agency is mandated by law to keep all records for 5 years, then you must keep all records for 5 years including property evidence reports and/or logs.

The agency head, chief of police, county sheriff, or public safety director determines how the agency operates. Logic would dictate that a property log or property records be keep in an area easily accessible to the property officer. Normally within the property room. If the agency head decides that the records will be keep on the fifth floor and the property stored in the basement, it is the pu rogative of the agency head. Unless mandated by law all policies of any agency are at the discretion of the agency head. Laws normally state what needs to happen and within what time limit - - - not necessarily how. 

The law often requires an agency to hold records for a set time limit (perhaps 5 years) prior to purging. It rarely says that the agency must hold in manila folders, alphabetized by suspect and victim names, inside. a white bankers box, stacked no more than four high, in a room marked as the property unit, within four feet of the west door, all property records for all eternity. It would be nearly impossible to enforce. The particular place or way records must be maintained are at the option of the agency within the needs of their records keeping system. 

Most agencies have a records supervisor who can tell you what the specific legal time limits and requirements are for storing property records in you r state or territory. 

If your property room enters every item into a logbook, the logbook(s) must be maintained according to record purging criteria. Some agencies keep the logbooks for historic value, others for data value, most simply dispose of them after the legal time expires. Some agencies create a log by filing property reports or property cards into a file cabinet. If the records are requested for court, a "book" is created by placing the records within a thirty day or 50 case period into a two hole punched report cover. Most court decisions provide for a log to be a suitable book or on a computer or in any form that is or can be generated into a written form for cou rt testimony. 

One of the easiest ways to avoid becoming buried by property reports is to: 

• maintain all records until the evidence has been disposed of and the case has been adjudicated including legal time limits for filing appeals. 

• Make certain all paperwork related to the property reports have been completed. 
• required signatures completed 
• applicable information on how the items were disposed of
• applicable dates included 
• computer entries (if applicable) 

• Forward all paperwork to the records division to be filed and held with original case reports.

• Records will dispose of the agency reports including the property reports as part of the normal legal purging of records. 

It may sound cliché but like the saying goes: "no job is ever really done until the paper work is finished".