The items you keep in your property and evidence room are the most valuable in your department—not necessarily because they are expensive, but because they help your department solve cases and put away criminals. Maintaining the security of these items is essential to your department’s core function and key to upholding its reputation.
One important practice to help keep up with managing the evidence in your P&E room is to conduct regular audits. Many officers wonder exactly how audits help with overall evidence management. Let’s look at the top 5 ways:
1. Audits Help You Get (and Stay) Organized
If your property and evidence room is overflowing, you might be wishing you could simply call in a team of professional organizers and they could transform your room into a neat and organized space. The bad news is that it’s all up to you, but the good news is that an evidence management system can help. By placing barcode labels on the individual pieces of evidence, and barcode labels on the corresponding shelves, each item has an easily-identified, assigned place. It may take some effort to set up the first time, but every audit afterward is a breeze, and your P&E room will stay tidy.
2. Keep Pieces Secure, No Matter How Big or Small
The pieces of evidence that get stored in a P&E room can come in many shapes and sizes, as large as a bicycle or as small as a pin. Having to keep track of items of such varying shapes and sizes can be tricky. However, each of the items in your P&E room is invaluable in that they can make or break a legal case, which is why it’s important that every piece be kept, no matter how small. Regular audits ensure that all pieces are accounted for, where they’re supposed to be, and that nothing falls through the cracks.
3. Keeping Sensitive Items Accounted For
Crime scenes vary, and some are more sensitive than others. Sensitive crime scenes can generate items that are of high-dollar value, and that frequently fall into one of the “Big 3” categories: money, guns, or drugs. Because of the sensitive nature of these items, they should be stored separately from the regular evidence storage and audited more frequently. These items need to be watched carefully, as any mismanagement can get your department into a lot of trouble. With an evidence management system that lets you run custom audits, you can select to run an audit by evidence type (such as for a specific drug, guns, etc) that makes the process easy.
4. Find Out Sooner When Items are Missing
During an inspection audit is not the time to find out that an item is unaccounted for. By performing regular internal audits, you can find out right away that an item has gone missing. This gives you enough time to locate the item if it was simply misplaced within the P&E room, or enough time to initiate the proper procedures in the event the evidence is truly missing. Either way, it looks better that you found out and handled it right away, rather than having a failed inspection audit turn into a situation of placing blame.
5. Inventory Is the Perfect Time for Disposition
If you’re taking the time to go through the evidence for auditing, you may as well be able to get rid of some pieces along the way. You might be a little tired during the audit process, but this is the ideal time to make an extra pass and round up items that are ready for disposition. That way you’re not taking the time to check off or organize pieces that should be leaving anyway, and you leave your P&E room in even better shape for next time.
Reflecting on Your Department
Your evidence room serves as the reflection of your department, and losing key evidence can quickly tarnish its reputation. It’s your department’s responsibility to make sure that every piece of evidence is accounted for and that its chain of custody is maintained. This is why auditing is crucial. By keeping your P&E room clean and organized, regularly conducting audits, and using an evidence management system, you’ll be able to avoid problems down the road.
The Best Evidence Management Solution
For the best evidence management system, PMI Evidence Tracker™ has you covered. It’s a powerful evidence management tool designed to support all law enforcement agencies, helping you keep track of even the most sensitive pieces of evidence. Invest in our affordable, convenient, and highly versatile system—order yours today!
