A newspaper article a couple of years ago publicized stinging criticism of a large police department's property function, laying much of the blame on the department's top management and policy. The particular incident precipitating the article was the determination by a state Grand Jury not to issue any criminal charges based on an investigation of the agency by the State Police.

As you read the following selected quotes from the article, you will probably feel that the only way that it could have been worse would have been if it had been your agency and your name in the news. The headline was:

The grand jury said the investigation findings about "the disappearance of drugs, cash and guns from the ***** Police Department evidence room are insufficient to file criminal charges." "Though the missing items clearly were stolen," the state attorney said, "poor management practices meant the missing items left no trail." "It does not mean that the grand jury felt there was no wrongdoing or there had not been evidence taken," he said.

"It's clear someone took the evidence." "It's like having a department store with no security, and trying to catch the shoplifters," he said .

"Police chiefs, deputy chiefs, evidence room custodians, patrol officers, custodians, secretaries, garage employees and even jail inmates who cleaned up flood damage had access to the room, according to a summary of the state police investigation .... Security did not exist. Keys and combinations were rarely, if ever, changed."

"Procedures for destroying evidence lacked proper documentation and made the system open to loss and theft. ... In two instances, bags containing cash recovered from crimes had been cut open, and some of the cash had been taken out."

A former property officer "allowed officers to take property from the evidence room as long as they told him it was to be used for official business .... Unnamed police employees told investigators that they were allowed to take home recovered property, including bicycles, a car stereo, a CB radio, and a computer printer .... Though evidence had disappeared from the vault for decades, the scandal did not come to light until it was reported" by the local newspaper.

"A state police audit ... reviewed all evidence collected between 1961 and 1994 and discovered that 11 % of it had disappeared. The missing items included nearly $74,000 in cash, 319 drug exhibits and 650 firearms."

"Meanwhile, the ***** Police Department has begun reforming procedures for cataloging seized evidence." The "acting police chief . .. ordered locks changed in the evidence room and access restricted to certain employees. A consultant hired by the city is expected to make recommendations soon for better documentation of evidence."