Although the editorial practice of this magazine is to point out the positive as goals for increasing our professionalism, in this column we will take the opposite perspective with some photos which were graciously donated with a request for anonymity.  We will point out some negatives that hopefully are worse than what most of us have to deal with.  By drawing attention to the errors illustrated by these photos, we will provide some guidelines to help us manage evidence in a more orderly manner.

The photo on the right certainly demonstrates the ugly.  An employee attempting to get to the ladder in the back of the room would be at substantial hazard from falling material as he or she tried to maneuver through the stacked boxes.  At least the stretcher is on top, as it is fairly light to fall on you, and may very well be needed in the immediate future.  Believe it or not, there is shelving on the right wall behind the stacks of other items.  How long to you think it would take to inventory the shelves?  Who would want to?

If the guidelines for handling computers and related equipment were compressed to only two, they probably would be to avoid contaminants, especially water, and to handle them gently to avoid jarring the components.  The photo at left shows an almost unbelievable choice of a location around and under a sink (apparently in use based on the dirty paper towels), and a chosen technique of piling them in random order.  Obviously some already have fallen over.  If an owner is located, what will the Department's liability be for damage?

The location on the right at least shows an effort to get everything off the floor, if for no other reason than the flooding danger from the overflow condensation hose from the fan unit in the ceiling.  At least two of the buckets appear full, and are blocking access to the lower shelf.  The hanging clothes obscure other items on the shelf, the items on the car seat certainly don't appear very stable, and the white chair by the upper fan hose looks precarious.  To access the box under the cooler, three large items need moving.