Dear Members,

Often the worst of times brings out the best in people. Here is a perfect example of that.

The Texas Rangers recently concluded an almost two year long investigation that resulted in a federal court conviction of the former Midland (TX) Police Department property and evidence supervisor. The investigation showed that she had embezzled money over a five year period by altering property tags in the evidence room to falsely indicate that officers had authorized the release of cash.

Now, Police Chief John Urby wants the Department to move on. He was quoted as saying, "It's really tarnished our reputation and hurt us in the community . We're in the process of earning back that trust." He added that he and the Department were all shocked to discover the thefts, because she had been in such a position of trust.

According to reporter Shanna Sissom in the January 6, 2005 issue of the Midland Reporter Telegram, the manager, 43, "was sentenced to four years of probation with one year of house arrest, 200 hours of community service, a $10,000 fine and ordered to pay $17,220 in restitution."

The Chief has assigned Lieutenant Christopher Cherry to "pick up the pieces and restore confidence and trust." They have already tightened procedures significantly, and I have exchanged some e-mails with Lieutenant Cherry. In one of them he says, "As you know, all of my staff and I have attended your training. Two of my staff are now certified (CPES), and the third is preparing to take the test. I appreciate you being here and providing the quality training that law enforcement organizations need."

If we gave a "Phoenix" award for helping a Unit rise from the ashes, then Lieutenant Cherry would certainly be a finalist. He has not only addressed the immediate problem by tightening policy and procedure, he has gone on to increase the professionalism of the Unit, and therefore the Department. With him as an example, make sure you read the article on the Certified Property and Evidence Specialist program starting on page 36 of this issue.

On another topic, we all know that there are state regulations that impact our Property Room operations. You also have probably found that there is never a copy of the specific code available when you want to look up the specific wording of a section.

Here is a quick solution for finding a particular state or federal statute, or even case law decision, if you have internet capability. Go to the website http://www.findlaw.com/casecode to do your research.

At no cost, and without giving up your personal information to "register" for use of the site, you can look for any particular numbered section, or do a search of one or all of the State or Federal codes using keywords from the section. Because you are searching such tremendous volumes of information, you need to narrow your search to avoid receiving hundreds of responses, but even if you have a lot of material to review after doing your search, it's a great resource for almost any law or case decision.

One last reminder: Don't forget the tremendous resource material available on the IAPE website (http://www.iape.org). The site has Policy, Standards, Publications, Downloads, Class Descriptions and Schedules, Advertisers, The Evidence Log feature articles and sections such as "I've Got Something", "It Could Be Worse", and Certification requirements & test applications.

Sincerely,