What Is an Inventory?

A property room inventory can be defined as individually checking all or a specifiedportion of the property items against the agency's records (CAPE: 95; 53).  An integral part of the inventory process is to insure that all items of property and evidence are accounted for.  A complete inventory involves matching each piece of paperwork with its corresponding piece of property / evidence.

The purpose of the inventory is to ensure the continuity of custody and not to require the accounting of every single item of property.  The inventory should be sufficient to ensure the integrity of the system and the accountability of the property (CALEA: 84; 1. 6)

The International Association of Chiefs of Police concept paper states " An annual inventory of evidence held by the agency shall be conducted by a commanding officer (appointed by chiet) not routinely or directly connected with evidence control." Evidence Control Concept Paper IACP - 199 1. 

Why conduct an Inventory?

As illustrated in the above three sources, it is interesting to note that there are no absolute standards when conducting an inventory, but you will never be second-guessed if you do a complete inventory on a regularly scheduled basis.  Can you imagine any type of business in the private sector not conducting a regular inventory to determine if they had made a profit, or whether or not their inventory had been the victim of massive internal thefts?  Even though we generally don't suffer lost profits, when we lose or misplace evidence it can have a dramatic effect on both the outcome of a criminal trial and the credibility of the agency.  How do you explain to the family of a sexual assault or homicide victim that you can't proceed to trial because the evidence can't be retrieved?

Who Conducts the Inventory?

Most experts would agree that personnel from outside of the property function bring the highest level of integrity to the inventory process.  However this rarely occurs due to staffing issues and the lack of personnel within the organization that have expertise in the property function.  It is always recommended that at least one of the inventory takers is totally unassociated with the property function.

When Is an Inventory Conducted?

An inventory should be conducted annually or when personnel changes are made.  The ideal situation is for the past and new property custodians to conduct a joint inventory.  This author would always recommend that new chiefs and sheriffs demand an inventory before taking over as the leader of the organization.  After a very short period of time there is no excuse for missing, lost or pilfered items from the property room.  This edict would ideally apply to all new managers, supervisors and property personnel.  Inventories should also be perfon-ned upon reassignment of the property custodian.  The new custodian and the immediate supervisor should complete this inventory.

It must be understood that in agencies where there are dozens of personnel in the property room this mandate may not be physically possible.  As is the case with most property room issues, the policies of most departments are similar in nature, but there are no statutory absolutes.  Definitive standards just don't exist.  The bottom line is that when tragedy strikes, you should have had an inventory recently.

Several years ago a relatively large agency in the mid-west conducted its first inventory in thirty-seven years.  Much to its disbelief, over IO percent of its property couldn't be accounted for, including $76,000 in cash, 319 drug exhibits, and 650 firearms.  The local press was quoted as saying that "Unnamed police employees told investigators that they were allowed to take home recovered property, including bicycles, stereos, radios and computer printers".

Considering that no inventory had ever been conducted, the state auditors were looking for missing items that occurred over a period of thirty-seven years.  At the same time it was deten-nined that over 50 different employees had worked, supervised or managed the property function during this same time.  This translates to over 50 possible suspects in a major theft of guns, money and narcotics.  Was it one suspect or many, or bad inventory contro 'I?  Did it all happen within a few weeks or over many years?

As this factual case evolved it was quickly realized that if an inventory had been done on a routine basis (yearly and with personnel changes) the thefts would most likely never have occurred.  Management must acknowledge that thefts generally do not occur if everyone in the organization knows certain internal controls are in place.

Exceptions to Full Inventories

When the scale of such a task would be impossible (or impractical), concentrate on the "high risk" items and spot check the rest.  Conduct the spot checks by selecting a certain number of storage bins and checking all of the property in them, and then selecting a certain range of property tag numbers, and checking all of the property shown on those tags (CAPE: 95; 53).

Types of Inventories

As in audits there are three traditional methods of inventories.

• The first is selecting a property record or sheet from the file and verifying the description, quantity and location.
• The second is selecting an active case file and verifying it by the description, quantity and location of the property.
• The third is selecting an item of evidence from the shelf and comparing the description and quantity to the property record or sheet.

The above scenario allows the inventory process to be done on a scheduled monthly basis while breaking the task up into small pieces, as opposed to a long drawn out process.

Documentation is a mandatory element of any inventory.  After the inventory is completed the results always need to be formally documented and safely preserved to allow future research.  For example if a gun is missing from a 1995 case and you find the item on the gun inventory through the year 2000, the investigation can focus on 2000, rather than the prior years.

The original documentation should be kept separate from the Property Unit.  Frequently it is kept in the Division Captain's office.  An even better idea is to keep it with the Captain of a non-related Division.  Some departments submit the listing to the Record Bureau as an incident report.  This allows the finalized inventory to be formally documented and filled in the Record Bureau, where it would be controlled under their retention schedule.

How Is an Inventory Performed?

While random inventories provide system integrity to the process, a full inventory is always recommended.  This does not mean that each package is opened, but every package or non-packaged items are examined and compared with the files.  It is recommended that a random inventory be started in one easily described location, such as the top shelf of a particular bin, and that it proceed in a systematic pattern throughout the property room.  Each item on the shelf must be examined for case, control and item number.  After several shelves have been completed (six to eight), the list should then be compared to the existing property records or computer files.  As items are located in the file(s), mark the item on the file to confirm that it has been matched to an item on a shelf

As the process continues, each shelf item should match with the paper file(s).  When completed, the file(s) must be reviewed for items not checked off.  These are missing items that immediately must be brought to management's attention.  As a precautionary note, never inventory from paper to the shelf.  Otherwise, if you're going to do a full inventory and you have 5,000 active cases you will end up make 5,000 trips to the various shelves and bins.  Always do the inventory from the shelf to the paper.

As audits and inventories are intrinsic to a property room operation, there are areas of special consideration.  Comparisons of descriptions do not always address the internal contents.  If the evidence seal is intact the property system is basically sound.  If seals have been broken to verify the contents, the item must be resealed.  The replacement seal should be witnessed, initialed and dated with the same accuracy as the original seal.  An inventory of narcotics slated for destruction should include random testing to determine if the narcotic is still pure and unadulterated.

Unable to Locate File (UTL)

Property rooms routinely keep Unable to Locate (UTL) files.  The presence of a UTL file with more that a few items may be a clue to managers that problems may be lurking.  Managers should inspect these files on a regular basis and employees must promptly report missing items.  Should several items be found in the UTL file, this is a warning that major problems are just around the comer.  All missing property must be immediately investigated.  Special Attention needs to be given to the review of guns, money and narcotics.

Found Property / Evidence During Inventory

In the event items are found on the shelf without documentation, it is suggested that the item be researched to connect the item to a case.  When the item of property cannot be identified, it is suggested that the items be listed on a "Found Property Report", held for the statutory period and then disposed of according to existing laws.  This is a method of disposing of evidence which has lost its value because of the inability to provide a sound chain of custody due to an inadequate paper trail.

Inventories should not be conducted during routine business hours because the constant interruptions hinder the accuracy of the inventory.  Therefore schedule this activity during non-business hours.  Sometimes this can be done by changing shift hours, but it is important even if it requires overtime.

The importance of segregating firearms, money and narcotics has been a continuing theme.  This segregation makes the inventory much simpler and adds system credibility.

A Snapshot In Time

As previously mentioned a complete inventory is always recommended.  While the full inventory would be a complete reconciliation between the items on the shelf and the paperwork supporting them, there are some cases in which a full inventory is virtually impossible.

Several months ago I learned of a great procedure.  A police chief asked an employee to become the new property custodian.  After some deliberation she told the chief that she would only take responsibility for the unit if they could perform an inventory in the room before she became responsible.  With over 35,000 items stored, they soon realized that comparing the paper with all of the items was going to take forever.  At that time she developed a creative new strategy.

The new property custodian designed a method that I have referred to as a "snapshot in time".  She identified seven fields of information that were critical to her management of the property room.  She then inventoried all of the property in the room shelf by shelf by using an audio tape recorder as she read off the seven descriptors on each item.  As she worked the room she talked into the recorder and listed the date, case number, item number(s), type of crime, location found, a generic description (e.g. handgun) and whether or not the item was booked as misdemeanor evidence, felony evidence, found property, or for safekeeping.  Although the inventory took several weeks to accomplish, when she was done she virtually had a "snapshot in time" of every item in the property room.  Although there was no match verified between the records and the items on the shelves, she knew what was and was not in the property room at the time of her inventory.  She also saved months of work.

The next phase of the project included having a transcription service enter the data line by line into a spreadsheet.  It needs to be understood that a spreadsheet is not the ideal software for inventories, but where time was of . an essence it filled the bill.  After the 16,000 lines of data had been entered she could sort by each of the above seven criteria.

The charts on the following pages will give you some idea of how the information was entered and how each field could be sorted numerically or alphabetically.  In essence if you sorted the cases you would have 16,000 lines by case number which would quickly give you some idea of how many cases you had by the year.  Sorted by type of crime it would immediately tell you how many cases you had by crime.  The process worked for all of the chosen fields and left her with a "snapshot in time".  The spreadsheet also had correct locations for each item, so when audit items could not be found in the location shown in the official documentation, they could be looked up on the spreadsheet and found easily.
 
 

Hopefully the answer to the question "To Inventory or Not to Inventory" should be clear in the minds of property clerks, supervisors, managers, and administrators.  You can't afford not to inventory your property on a regularly scheduled basis.  Be diligent, be creative, but most importantly develop a plan, and implement it immediately.