In IAPE's "Property and Evidence Management" course, Joe Latta and his colleagues address the crucial importance of inventories and audits of the Property Rooms of law enforcement agencies. And while is may seem to some to be a matter of semantics, we'd like to take just a minute to differentiate between what goes on in an inventory and what takes place in an audit. All too often we hear these terms being used as if they were interchangeable; indeed, they are very different events.

When we speak of an inventory, we are describing the actual accounting for every item of property and/or evidence that is booked into the Property Room. The intent of an inventory is a strict accounting for those items that are in Property and/or those items that are supposed to be within the Property Room, but cannot be located. Inventories may be periodic (Remember Joe's question of "How do you eat an elephant?" when he was describing how to plan incremental inventories?), or the inventory may be triggered by the transfer of key Property Room personnel. If the inventory is being conducted due to the transfer of responsibility for the Property Room manager/supervisor, we suggest that a "joint inventory," i.e. one in which the incoming and outgoing managers jointly conduct the inventory, at the time of the personnel change. This system will give the new manager a "snapshot in time" of what property and evidence was there on the day they took over the Property Room. It also allows the outgoing manager to leave knowing that everything was accounted for before the end of his/her watch. If that is an inventory, what is an audit?

Audits are intended to assess the overall operations of the Property Unit. An audit may include reviews of general orders, SOPs and other directives that pertain to the processing of property and evidence within a department. The review should see if the directives and protocols are in keeping with recognized professional standards and the auditors should then check to see if there is ongoing compliance with the directives. For example, if a handgun was booked into Property, the auditor should check to see if the procedures for checking the serial numbers against NCIC and other databases was accomplished, if the weapon was made safe before booking into Property, if the gun was packaged in accordance with guidelines, if the gun was stored per the SOPs, if destroyed were all of the appropriate steps taken and properly documented?

These are some of the inquiries that the auditor should make when doing a "paper chase" on the firearm. Certainly, if the weapon is still in Property, a physical check of the weapon and serial number verification should be accomplished. In addition to a random sampling of items, both active and closed, Auditors may review security, use of automated tracking systems, storage procedures, staffing, safety, etc.

Audit or inventory? Hopefully, now we have a common understanding of the difference between the two processes. It is an important clarification among Property professionals.