IAPE Evidence Blog

The Palm Beach Post, palmbeachpost.com
BYLINE: Eliot Klein­berg, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Link to Article

Boyn­ton Beach, FL

Evi­dence Detec­tive Daniel Cline looks for an item inside the evi­dence room at the Boyn­ton Beach Police Depart­ment Fri­day Feb. 3, 2012. Richard Graulich/Palm Beach Post

BOYNTON BEACH — A recent audit of the police evi­dence unit was unable to account for 40 items, chief Matt Imm­ler said last week .

By Thurs­day, Imm­ler said, fewer than 11 items remained unac­counted for.

He said none were crit­i­cal to open cases, where a defense lawyer might employ a “chain of cus­tody” challenge.

Imm­ler said this is the first such inci­dent since he became chief in 2005.

He said the items never were miss­ing; they just couldn’t be found in an evi­dence unit so crowded that bins are stacked on top of each other or slip behind each other on shelves.

“We are com­pletely out of space,” Imm­ler said. “That’s even with destroy­ing as much evi­dence and prop­erty as we’re allowed to every month. The inflow of prop­erty over­takes the outflow. ”

Immler’s solu­tion is one he’s pushed for years: a new police station.

The depart­ment, one of Palm Beach County’s largest, oper­ates in a wing of city hall that totals 18,000 square feet. A 2009 study said it needs 60,000 to 80,000.

All the miss­ing items, Imm­ler said, were from closed cases or cases police likely will not pur­sue. One item dated to 1983, accord­ing to memos obtained by the Post.

While some space for evi­dence recently opened up in a garage and in parts of city hall, it’s either not cli­mate con­trolled or not secure, Imm­ler said.

Amid the city’s con­tin­u­ing bud­get woes, Imm­ler had laid off two civil­ian evi­dence cus­to­di­ans, and employed offi­cers he’d taken off the street for rea­sons such as injury or discipline.

“That’s when we began to notice there was a prob­lem,” Imm­ler said.

He said he added six inspec­tions and ran­dom monthly checks.

By then, Imm­ler had reas­signed two road offi­cers to the evi­dence unit; they helped in the Decem­ber audit that turned up the discrepancy.

Imm­ler has com­pen­sated by tak­ing two other offi­cers off inter­a­gency task forces, one on gangs and one on drugs.

“I didn’t want to do that, because I believe in those task forces,” Imm­ler said. “But at this point, I don’t have any choice.”

Evi­dence Detec­tive Daniel Cline looks for an item inside the evi­dence room at the Boyn­ton Beach Police Depart­ment Fri­day Feb. 3, 2012. Richard Graulich/Palm Beach Post
 
 
 
 
 

Evi­dence Detec­tive Daniel Cline stands next to shelves stocked to the ceil­ing inside the evi­dence room at the Boyn­ton Beach Police Depart­ment Fri­day Feb. 3, 2012. Richard Graulich/Palm Beach Post
 
 
 

Items are stacked inside the evi­dence room at the Boyn­ton Beach Police Depart­ment Fri­day Feb. 3, 2012. Richard Graulich/Palm Beach Post
 
 
 
 
 
 

Evi­dence con­tain­ers are stacked inside the evi­dence room at the Boyn­ton Beach Police Depart­ment Fri­day Feb. 3, 2012. Richard Graulich/Palm Beach Post
 
 
 
 
 

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