This is a progress report on our attempt to purge unneeded property and evidence.  It started with changing to a "Bar code" property and evidence system and is presently in the "Urge to Purge" stage.

When I started in our property and evidence room I am sure it was just as many others have experienced.  The first thought was, "How on earth does anyone find anything in here?!!!" As I learned how the property and evidence was documented, received, logged, stored, tracked, monitored and reviewed for disposal I was amazed!  It was a huge effort and very time consuming.

All the documentation and records were done by hand.  It started with separate sheets by case number which were completed by the officers submitting the property.  Evidence employees then made written record on that sheet of where the property was stored.  These property and evidence sheets were placed into file drawers by year and case numbers.  It was January of 1997, and we had just completed the review of property on the sheets from the year 1993.  That process needed to be changed before we could ever have a chance to see how unnecessary it was for us to maintain so much property and evidence for so long.

We were fortunate in that our department had already reviewed bids from several computer software vendors for the main records management system.  The software they chose happened to have what has turned out to be a very good "bar code" property and evidence subsystem.  It links to the main reports being completed by officers in the field.  With this system the officers were required to enter the property and evidence information into the computer.  The system took some getting used to, but did not require any more information from the officers than we had already been asking of them on the paper sheets.  The officers now placed a bar code label on the items, instead of the hand written labels they used to use.

With this bar code system in place, we streamlined the documentation and storage of the property and evidence.  Once we created a bar code label for all locations in which property and evidence could be stored, we simply scanned the item or items and the location into a hand held scanner.  The data about the
items and their storage locations was then downloaded into the computer from the scanner.

The process of receiving and documenting the incoming property and evidence on a Monday morning changed from a four-hour process to a 30-minute process.  The time saved was used to research the cases for disposal, so we now had time to focus on our need for space to store the items being received.

The evidence room had expanded twice in the eight years since the department had move into its current location.  We were yet again looking for more room.  We felt we needed at least another 1,000-sq. ft. of floor space.

As we were looking for the expansion space, we looked at mobile shelving. We found the use of mobile shelving allowed us to store almost twice the property in the same floor space.  This is accomplished by having a the same floor space.  This is accomplished by having a mobile isle instead of several isles between rows of property.  We decided to use the main evidence room for this mobile shelving, as it was just over 1,000 sq. ft of floor space.  To accomplish this we needed to empty a 240 sq. ft floor space so the smaller of two sections of mobile shelving could be installed.

Instead of just moving the items out and then back when the shelves were done, we decided to review the need to maintain them.  Once we had reviewed all the items in that area, we found we only needed one four foot by four-foot shelf.  The items kept were needed for active court cases.  This start of the purging process reduced the needed floor space from 240 sq. ft to 8 sq. ft.  This was more than a 93% reduction in needed space. 

After the mobile shelving was installed, the same 240 sq. ft floor space now held the non purged property from a nearby 825 sq. ft area.  This was a more efficient use of space only taking 15% of the floor space it used to occupy.  And we had not even reviewed this property for purging!!

When the two areas were completed, we found we had 825 sq. ft of available space for incoming property.  The area is now able to take 85% more property than it was capable of storing before the mobile shelving was installed.  This is extremely important, as we needed space to store property incoming while we coitinue to review and purge the property we had been holding without review.

We still have 2,861 sq. ft of storage area needing the purging review. If we continued with the 95% reduction in needed space we can store all needed from the 2,861 sq. ft in an area of 408 sq. ft.  We have been able to down size instead of the continued expansion, and have used some of the old storage room for a larger room in which officers can package or review their property and evidence.  The purge process alone would reduce the present needed space from 3,806 sq. ft of floor space to an estimated floor space of 550 sq. ft.

We also worked with the prosecuting attorneys and obtained written approval to photograph some of the evidence and keep the photograph in place of the evidence. Large, hard-to-store items, such as propane tanks and wheel chairs, can be photographed and properly released while retaining the photograph to be used in court.  Marijuana is photographed, and then a one-gram sample is taken from each package or plant.  The photograph and sample are maintained and analyzed with the remaining package being destroyed.  These two steps have also helped reduce the space needed for retained items.

The District Attorney is presently considering following L. A. County procedures for narcotics and paraphernalia. Only the photos and analysis are taken to court, as the narcotic and paraphernalia have been ruled hazardous materials.

I had been to the IAPE Property and Evidence seminar and had been reading The Evidence Log.  Both talk of the major problem facing property and evidence rooms being the purging of items being held based on a review as to the need to keep the items.  As we got more involved with our storage needs, it again reaffin-ned our Department's need to focus more on the review of items in our inventory to limit the inventory as much as possible.  The additional benefit was that we now have at least part of our property and evidence room professionally organized.

The before and after pictures are simply amazing.  We now have the urge to purge.