From Storage to Preservation: The Crucial Role of Evidence Integrity Over Time

Evidence preservation is critical throughout the lifecycle of any physical evidence held by the police. Most states have evidence retention laws on the books that require PDs to hold onto criminal case evidence for a set number of months or years. Many states require homicide evidence to be held forever. Those regulations create storage challenges for the local evidence room as the evidence accumulates much faster than personnel can remove it?

No matter how difficult, law enforcement agencies must ensure the integrity of the evidence they maintain so that justice is served. Failure to preserve evidence properly jeopardizes individual cases and can undermine public trust in our legal system.?

In this blog, we’ll examine the complex topic of long-term storage and preservation of evidence at the local level. Best of all, we’ll offer a solution to meeting the demands of long-term evidence preservation that works.

Long-Term Preservation Challenges

• Lack of Space: No local evidence room in this country can store an infinite inventory, and evidence is piling up in departments everywhere. When this happens, proper long-term storage conditions are challenging to maintain and may be impossible to provide for all types of evidence.
• Environmental Conditions: Storage constraints may limit the number of items kept at their proper temperature and humidity levels. Failure to do so may cause them to degrade, rendering them useless for future examination and courtroom presentation.
• Budget Constraints: Agencies with limited budgets may be unable to afford simple interior infrastructure improvements, conducting outside audits, or maintaining minimum staffing levels.
• Long-Term Preservation Recognition and Planning: Police departments continually try to improve their performance and provide their communities with the most efficient and effective services possible. This applies to the local property and evidence function as well. Over the years, the scientific and law enforcement communities have worked together and separately to improve evidence collection, examination, testing, and initial storage. However, it could be argued that long-term evidence storage and preservation haven’t gotten equal consideration as (pardon the pun) evidenced by the inventory crisis in many PD evidence rooms today.

A New and On-Going Section Making the Consequences of Improper Storage and Preservation Tangible

From Collection to Chaos: Evidence Mishandling Leads to Dismissal

People v. A.M. (NY 2015)

A.M. was charged with drug trafficking in 2014. The case was dismissed in 2015, as transaction records and confiscated narcotics could not be located. The PD admitted that the evidence locker used had not been secured.

Cases like People v. A.M. punctuate the need for rigorous evidence management procedures and demonstrate why they must be followed without fail.

Best Practices for Evidence Storage and Preservation

• Climate Controls: Maintaining appropriate temperature and humidity levels.
• Efficient Use of Space: Maximizing storage capacity without compromising access.
• Proper Packaging: Ensuring evidence is packaged to prevent contamination and degradation.
• Regular Inventory Audits: Conduct frequent audits to ensure evidence is accounted for and properly stored.
• Training: Providing continuous training for staff on evidence handling and storage protocols.
• Policies and Procedures: Implementing comprehensive policies and procedures to guide evidence management.
• Planning for the Future: Developing long-term strategies to address evidence storage needs.

Words of Caution: Outside Storage Containers or Pods

It may be tempting for a department to rent one of those big old box-car-type or pod-type storage units to add to their storage capacity. Units like that would increase inventory capacity, to be sure, but what happens when that limited space fills up? And will those containers preserve what’s inside? Let’s briefly explore this option and its advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages

• Temporary Solution: Increase the amount of available storage space.
• Cost Effective: Containers may be fairly inexpensive for short-term use.

Disadvantages

• Logistics: It can be tough to place the container to ensure it is secure and monitored 24/7/365. Its location could cause access and lack of space problems, like parking, outside the station house. Modern inventory tracking systems that use radio frequencies may only work in the evidence room, creating a duo, paper, and computer-based tracking system. Such a system lends itself to mistakes in documentation and unneeded extra work to rectify them. Any facility managed by agency personnel separate from the evidence room itself adds time to retrieving evidence and any task associated with using it. Leadership should expect extra effort and time to complete the work related to an outside container.
• Weather: High or low temperatures, severe weather, flooding, and other environmental conditions can easily complicate their use.
• Maintaining Evidence Integrity: The weather conditions may cause certain items to degrade or even be destroyed. The documentation and chain of custody records may prove more challenging to complete while escalating the chance for human error.
• Regulations Compliance: External containers may not adhere to state laws, satisfy best practices, or follow the agency’s own policies on evidence storage.
• Legal Issues: Any deviances in storage or preservation regulations that affect evidence on hand can be challenged in court. If a judge agrees, evidence may be ruled inadmissible, or the case could be dismissed. An agency may be liable if evidence is lost, no longer viable, or destroyed due to improper storage conditions.

The risks and challenges of using outside containers can significantly impact the efficiency and effectiveness of the local PD evidence room. Having to defend itself in just one lawsuit arising from this storage option could easily wipe out any cost savings and damage the department’s reputation. We recommend proceeding with an abundance of caution when considering outside storage containers.

Conclusion

Preserving evidence for months or years isn’t easy. It can become impossible in facilities that are overwhelmed with evidence. Most preservation problems involve evidence that requires special environmental storage conditions.

No matter the amount of new evidence coming in, it will get stored. But it may not be adequately preserved. And if it’s not, it probably can’t be.

And therein lies the rub. Evidence must remain preserved.?

It’s a law, best practice, regulation, protocol, procedure, and the right thing to do. It’s all of those things. Evidence preservation allows us to take a second look at what we use to help us make big, life-changing decisions within our criminal justice system. And we don’t always get them right the first time.

So, how do law enforcement agencies preserve evidence in the long term?

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Fortress Plus Solutions

The answer to that question is Fortress Plus Solutions.

FPS is a private company providing law enforcement with long-term evidence storage and preservation services. FPS is located in greater Chicago, allowing them to service thousands of departments and other entities such as art galleries, prosecutors, defense attorneys, private collectors, and others who require safe, secure storage services. Additionally, Fortress Plus Solutions ensures the preservation of all items they store, regardless of the duration.

FPS does so in a warehouse-type facility designed from the ground up to securely store, preserve, and provide enough storage space for clients for years and years to come.

All the preservation measures mentioned in this piece are in place and already preserving their law enforcement client’s evidentiary items.

Fortress Plus Solutions was the brainchild of retired and active law enforcement professionals who oversee its operations and have worked with evidence management regulations for decades. They know their clients and understand their needs.

And that includes preservation.

Your solution is out there. Take the long-term evidence storage and preservation load off your personnel’s shoulders.

Contact Fortress Plus Solutions today! 888-301-1320 or Email: Contact FPS