In my last article [On the Move Again!  Evidence Log 96-02] I shared with the membership our maneuvering and persistence for a larger facility.  After several months of intense lobbying, approval was granted for the move.  Once the approval was granted, we had to decide what floor plan and system we would like to have.  Since we started in a small closet and graduated to an 8x10 storage area, moving to an area with 450 square feet of floor space was a large move.  Not only did we expand in floor space, we gained the ability to construct more shelving due to a 10 foot ceiling.

Before we began construction we checked with several departments to see how they had laid out their property rooms.  What we found was quite surprising.  For the most part, the other sections we toured were either like what we had or substantially larger.  With that information in hand we tried to take the best from everyone.

The section we acquired was an old storage room for the fire department.  Once everything was removed, we were able to decide what we wanted.  With a large open space in the middle of the floor, we decided to build one large storage shelf instead of several.  With this type of shelf we would not use up valuable floor space for extra aisles between multiple shelves.  In our old property room we utilized eight recycling bins to hold our evidence.  By expanding the recycling bin system and making only one shelf, we were able to place 60 recycling bins back to back to our new shelf.  The section of the floor underneath was divided into ten separate storage lockers for larger pieces of property or evidence.  We can now store many cases in their own separate locations without sharing a container, or continue to place several cases in one bin (individually packaged and marked).  Also by utilizing recycling bins, we can remove them if we need large flat spaces for storage.

With the bulk of the storage in the center of the room we had plenty of room for shelving on the outside walls.  Across one complete wall we installed a gun rack for large weapons.  Above the gun rack we placed several pistol lockers that we use mostly for locking down drugs such as crack and other narcotics that require the added attention.  On another wall we constructed shelves to hold nothing but seized alcohol.  Beneath the alcohol section we have our refrigeration area.  On the remaining wall we constructed shelving for small storage containers for smaller pieces of evidence.  All areas are numbered and lettered for inventory control.

Since our new property room is on the second floor of the police department we have a corner with a sloping roof.  Instead of letting that space go to waste, we had the carpenters build a wall across the area and enclose it with a single door.  We use this area to store evidence from those cases that the court, for some reason, wants you to save forever and a day.  All of those items can be placed in this area in a neat manner and logged as "long term evidence - hold" in our computer system.  If any of them are ever needed, they can be obtained in a matter of minutes.

With our new property section in place we decided to make one more addition.  Our property room is located next to our squad room.  With that in mind, we decided to place our intake property lockers in the wall between the two rooms.  On the squad room side are 12 individually numbered lockers.  On the property room side, the rear of those lockers open directly into the property room and are covered by two large doors, which are kept locked.  Because those doors can't be opened from the squad room side, the property room maintains its integrity.  When an officer needs property for court at a time when the Property Officer will not be available, the evidence can be placed in a specific individual locker from the property room side on the previous day and secured with a lock on the squad room side.  The officer is issued that locker until the property is returned or cleared in court.

We have been in our new property section for the last several months, and the system is working even better than expected.  The city government was so impressed with our remodeling, they decided to remodel the whole second floor of our department.  It seemed that once the ball got rolling with our property section, it just kept going for the whole second floor.

As with all Property Officers, we are still on the lookout for newer and better ways to update our property sections.  In the last issue of the Evidence Log I read an article written by Steve Berdrow of the Burbank (CA) Police Department on storing firearms.  From his article and ideas, I am now working on my new shelving and have ordered my gun boxes.  We made our move, but we will never stop improving.

[See Officer Berdrow's regular column, The Design Comer, in this issue for some additional suggestions related to the intake property lockers described above. ed.]