Twenty issues ago, in The Evidence Log © Volume 97, No. 1, appeared the first of a series of about 15 articles on the standards that exist for law enforcement property room operation.  The articles were based on the existing standards, which at the time included those prepared by the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards (POST) in 1984, The Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) in 1994, and the California Association for Property and Evidence (CAPE) in 1995, edited by Joe Latta and Gordon Bowers.  Since that time, the most significant new documents in the field have included Evidence and Property Management, a book by IAPE Executive Director Joe Latta and George E. Rush, and the California POST Property Manual update, published within the last few months, also with significant input from Joe Latta based on his extensive research and teaching experience.

Last year the IAPE Board decided that your professional association should take the lead in formalizing property standards and in making them more widely available.  To that end the Board had worked in pulling together the most current information available to produce a set of Property Standards that could be approved of by the entire IAPE Board.  With extensive collaboration, such a set of standards has been produced, and will be presented as feature articles in The Evidence Log beginning in this issue.  We hope it is useful, and we encourage your feedback to allow us to make any future revisions even more applicable to your professional efforts.

Organizational Placement refers to the authority lines and reporting relationships affecting the property unit.  It recognizes the fact that managers hold some elements of formal and informal control over the supervisors reporting to them.  The supervisors, in turn, have the same influences over their employees.  The property unit's organizational placement can greatly impact its independence and credibility.

The size of a law enforcement agency ordinarily influences the organizational placement of its property and evidence function.  There are however, compelling reasons which apply to all departments, that the responsibility for safeguarding and processing property be assigned to a specific organizational unit which functions primarily for that purpose.  The unit usually is placed organizationally in the Support Services or administrative Division.

Separation of duties is paramount to maintaining organizational independence and integrity of the property unit.  Centralizing the control and storage of property, and staffing the property unit with personnel who are not involved in the collection or disposition of property or evidence, are precautions that will simplify control procedures and enhance the integrity of a property room.

When two or more persons or departments are involved in a transaction, the work of one serves as a check on the accuracy of the work of another.  When two or more persons are involved in a transaction, the possibilities of fraud and the incidence of undetected error diminish considerably.  No one person should handle any transaction from beginning to end.  For example, a person receiving cash from officers should not post any ledgers accounting for the transaction.  Obviously, segregation of duties becomes more difficult among a small staff.  Some compromises may be necessary in small organizations due to staffing requirements. 

The organizational placement of the property unit can be part of the overall "checks and balances" of the agency in two ways.  First, the unit should be provided with limited authority.  The unit is for property custody and documentation only.  Ideally, it should not be involved in decisions about what to seize, or in decisions related to property disposition.  Second, the unit should be organizationally separate from the patrol and investigation functions.  Patrol personnel seize and book most property, and detectives most often check out property and arrange for its final disposition.  Using the property unit as a buffer between those two functions enhances accountability. In small and medium size departments, the property unit should be organizationally placed in an Administrative or Services Division.  In very small departments without an Administration or Support Services Division, placement in the Investigative Division by default might be required.

Patrol personnel who collect evidence in the field, and who subsequently may authorize release of these items, should not be given the responsibility to store or process evidence.  Investigative personnel who oversee criminal investigations, and are responsible for making decisions regarding the collected evidence, should not be involved in the property function.  In addition, having the unit independent of patrol and investigations reduces the appearance of conflict of interest.

Staffing deals with the selection of employees to work in the property function of the agency.  It includes such things as hiring standards, background investigations, assignments, and employee turnover.

Employees assigned to the property function may be non-peace officers, as peace officer powers are not generally required.  The same reasoning may apply to supervisors or managers of the function.

Property Officer candidates should successfully pass both a qualifying exam and thorough background check in addition to meeting requirements set forth by the agency.  Rotating personnel through the property unit should be discouraged as it makes quality control more difficult, and additional security measures should be undertaken each time a "key-holding" employee leaves the assignment.  If it is determined that rotation of "key-holding" personnel is absolutely necessary, a complete inventory is recommended to protect all employees involved in the rotation.

It is important that the agency's selection criteria produce qualified employees, and a significant part of that criterion is met thorough background investigation.  Whether the employee is sworn or civilian is less important than that they are a qualified, committed, long-term employee.