IAPE Evidence Blog

Patch.org, Napa­P­atch, napa.patch.com
BYLINE: Mar­sha Dor­gan
Link to Article

Napa, CA

Inside the climate-controlled room where police store crime-scene evi­dence and items of value found around town.

Com­mu­nity ser­vice offi­cer Cindy Hood runs the prop­erty and evi­dence room at the City of Napa Police Depart­ment. Credit Mar­sha Dorgan

Walk into Cindy Hood’s office and you’re likely to detect a faint odor of mar­i­juana. A few steps from her desk is an arse­nal of weapons: every­thing from an assault weapon to a hand­gun to a sword and even some deac­ti­vated hand grenades.

At one time, Hood had to work her way past a spa, a kitchen stove and a mas­sive tele­vi­sion that were tak­ing up valu­able space around her desk.

Hood, who has been with the Napa Police Depart­ment for more than 20 years, is the com­mu­nity ser­vice offi­cer in charge of the prop­erty and evi­dence room in the base­ment of the department’s offices on First Street in down­town Napa.

The climate-controlled room is crammed with boxes and bags of evi­dence recov­ered by inves­ti­ga­tors from a crime scene. This is also the stor­age spot for items of value found by police offi­cers or the public.

Drugs des­tined to be burned, guns restored to own­ers or melted down

Mar­i­juana, heroin and metham­phet­a­mine, with drug para­pher­na­lia such as pipes, syringes and scales, are kept under lock and key until the crim­i­nal cases are con­cluded and the dis­trict attor­ney releases the evidence.

Then the drugs are incinerated.

“I can’t for obvi­ous rea­sons release the loca­tion,” Hood said. “Offi­cers have to stand there and make sure all of the drugs com­pletely burn.”

Firearms no longer needed as evi­dence are sent to a Bay Area foundry where they are melted down for sewer pipe.

“Most of the stolen guns are retrieved: Own­ers usu­ally have the ser­ial num­ber, which proves own­er­ship,” Hood said.

Com­put­ers line two walls in the evi­dence room. If a com­puter is con­fis­cated in a search war­rant or part of a crim­i­nal case, its owner may down­load cer­tain items with per­mis­sion from the dis­trict attorney’s office, Hood said.

A cor­ner of the room is set aside for evi­dence col­lected from sex­ual assault crimes.

“We have to give them a larger area because the evi­dence can be bed­ding, pil­lows and other bulky items,” Hood said, point­ing to a child car seat.

Bikes and own­ers are hard to reunite

Even bulkier are the many stolen and con­fis­cated bicy­cles stored in a shed behind the police department.

“Most of them are found bikes. Some are evi­dence and oth­ers are being held for safe­keep­ing, such as if a per­son is arrested while rid­ing a bike, we keep it here for 90 days,” Hood said.

Found bikes are the hard­est items to reunite with their own­ers, said retired Napa police offi­cer Bob Van Wormer, Hood’s one helper in the prop­erty and evi­dence room.

“We can ID the owner through the bike’s ser­ial num­ber, how­ever, many peo­ple don’t keep track of that kind of stuff. Only about 10 per­cent of the bikes are recov­ered by the own­ers,” Van Wormer said.

If a per­son turns in a found bike, and police can­not find the owner, the finder may claim the bike, he said. After 90 days, unclaimed bikes are auc­tioned off.

Body flu­ids kept in con­trolled cold storage

Sev­eral freez­ers and refrig­er­a­tors lin­ing a back wall con­tain sealed plas­tic bags of blood and urine.

“The blood and urine sam­ples are kept in dif­fer­ent freez­ers,” Hood said. “We have to be extremely care­ful to not cross-contaminate the evi­dence while han­dling it.”

If the tem­per­a­ture fluc­tu­ates in a refrig­er­a­tor or freezer, “an alarm goes off to let us know,” Hood said.

The spec­i­mens are sent to the state Depart­ment of Jus­tice where they are processed and tested, she said.

Most evi­dence is kept until the crim­i­nal case is con­cluded and the appeal process is fin­ished. How­ever, homi­cide evi­dence must be kept for 99 years, Hood added.

Evi­dence is released only by order from the Napa County Dis­trict Attorney’s Office or the courts.

Dis­card­ing (purg­ing) found prop­erty is an ongo­ing process, said Shirley Perkins of Napa Police Admin­is­tra­tive Services.

“We do every­thing pos­si­ble to find the own­ers. If we know who they are, we write them let­ters,” she said. “We have even returned prop­erty to peo­ple who are incarcerated.”

Hood couldn’t said she recall any par­tic­u­lar “weird” items she has encoun­tered through­out the years.

“I was going through a sack once and a plas­tic skele­ton popped up. It really star­tled me,” she said.

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A clutch of deac­ti­vated hand grenades in the Napa Police Depart­ment prop­erty and evi­dence room. Credit Mar­sha Dor­gan
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Retired Napa police offi­cer Bob Van Wormer among the many bicy­cles in police stor­age. Credit Mar­sha Dor­gan
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­a­tion for Prop­erty and Evi­dence
“Law Enforce­ment Serv­ing the Needs of Law Enforce­ment”
www.IAPE.org