Storage Solved by Spacesaver

Six “Tips” for Evidence Storage and Evidence Room Planning

As I read a recent article titled “Evidence Depository Lockers”, I identified at least 6 helpful tips that any property and evidence room supervisor can benefit from hearing when it comes to evidence lockers for hand gun storage or long gun storage, narcotics storage, money storage and even biological evidence storage.  

So here they are... straight from someone in-the-know…Officer Steve Berdrow -a 25 year vetran of the Burbank Police Department.  Steve served assignments from supervisor of the Property and Evidence section to manager of all police department facilities and spent 9 years as co-project manager for the $30 million police and fire headquarters building project –an experience he undoubtedly draws from in the article. 

#1 Conduct site visits to other police agencies -learn from their experiences. 

In the article, Steve encourages those planning new build or renovation projects to see what others with similar situations are doing and ask how it’s working for them. A lot can be learned from the successes and failures of others –like what challenges were solved and what new challenges were created from the building’s design? What products were selected, why? How do those products function within the design?

#2 Place evidence lockers so they can be conveniently accessed from within the Report Writing Room.

He goes on to say, “In most of the police agencies that we have seen, evidence is tagged and packaged in a Report Writing Room. Therefore, a logical place for the evidence lockers is in that room.”

#3 Build “pass through” lockers into the common wall between the Report Writing Room and the Property Room, whenever feasible.

If the Property Section was adjacent to the Report Writing Room, "pass through" lockers could be constructed into the common wall  –making protecting the chain of custody of evidence effective AND efficient.

 #4 Avoid standard lockers that have simple “gravity” locks.

I thought Steve had a lot of good insight and advice regarding the type of lockers to avoid and what features were “must haves” to protect against tampering.  He cautions, “Be wary of standard metal lockers that look like school physical education lockers. Some types of those can be easily opened with a bent paper clip, because they have only a gravity lock.” 

He then goes on to describe what he finds to be critical evidence depository locker features and how those features aid in evidence processing by stating, “The easiest type of locker to manage from the Property Officer's perspective is one that remains open until an item of evidence is put inside. The door is then closed and it locks automatically with a spring loaded catch. When properly constructed, they cannot be opened from the Report Writing Room side.

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The Property Officer then removes the evidence from that side of the locker, flips the catch to open the door to the Report Writing Room, secures the Property Room side, and the locker is ready to be used again. No keys to mess with!”

#5 Vary the size of openings within the evidence lockers.

Evidence comes in all shapes and sizes so it is important to have lockers with a variety of compartment sizes –including refrigeration units for biological evidence storage or drying cabinets for…well the obvious…drying items with fresh blood! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since many items of evidence are small, I found one of Steve’s tips very smart. He recommends, “Consider having one locker with a small opening in a fixed front panel instead of a door. That way several small items can all go into one locker instead of taking up several lockers. Sample uses would be for Polaroid photos, drivers licenses, and miscellaneous small papers. The opening should not be so large that someone could reach a hand through it.”

#6 Specify a woven wire gate on the property room side of the locker.

Steve wraps up the article by speaking to the benefits of having a woven wire gate on the property room side of the lockers. He explains, “That way you can see into all of the lockers without having to open each small door to see if there is anything inside.”  A critical detail when incorporating a woven wire gate is to make sure that the gate fits closely to the back of the lockers. This will eliminate the potential for someone to reach through an open locker into an adjacent one to tamper with or remove evidence." 

 

I came across the "Evidence Depository Lockers" article in The Evidence Log (a quarterly publication of the IAPE)

 

Jason Konz - Storage Specialist

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