Archive for the 'Audit/Inventory' Category
Man Arrested For Stealing From Cushing Police Evidence Room
December 1, 2011WorldNow and KOTV, NewsOn6.com, newson6.com
Link to Article
Cushing, OK
CUSHING, Oklahoma — Agents with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation arrested a man they say broke into a police station and stole property from the evidence room.
Police in Cushing, Oklahoma got a call about a door open on a vacant apartment right next to the Cushing police evidence room.
Officers found that someone had busted through the wall and into a room where they store evidence. Police quickly discovered items from the property room were missing.
They tracked the break-in to Cushing resident, 26-year-old Dalton Dash Brown. He was arrested at the Payne County Courthouse while he was appearing on another burglary case.
After a two-day audit, police are confident they’ve recovered the stolen evidence.
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International Association for Property and Evidence
“Law Enforcement Serving the Needs of Law Enforcement”
www.IAPE.org
Cocaine stolen from Burnaby evidence locker
November 17, 2011Metro Vancouver, metronews.ca
BYLINE: MATT KIELTYKA, METRO VANCOUVER
Link to Article
Burnaby, BC, Canada
A City of Burnaby employee has been fired and charged with theft for allegedly stealing cocaine out of RCMP evidence storage.
Burnaby RCMP announced yesterday that Gary Read, a 56-year-old resident of Burnaby and a city employee, has been charged with a single count of theft.
The alleged theft was discovered when police conducted an audit of the Burnaby detachment in the spring and noticed that 500 grams of cocaine was missing from a drug exhibit.
Police launched an investigation that led to Read — who had oversight of the exhibits — being charged.
Chief Supt. Dave Critchley said the detachment has revised its policy and procedures to prevent a similar incident in the future.
Deputy city manager Rick Earle said Read, a longtime city employee, has been terminated from his job.
Read is expected to appear in Vancouver provincial court on Dec. 13.
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International Association for Property and Evidence
“Law Enforcement Serving the Needs of Law Enforcement”
www.IAPE.org
Drugs, money missing from LMISD evidence room
November 13, 2011The Daily News, galvestondailynews.com
BYLINE: Christopher Smith Gonzalez, The Daily News
Link to Article
La Marque, TX
LA MARQUE — Drugs, money and possibly firearms all went missing from the School District Police Department’s evidence room at some point during the administration of the previous police chief, Timothy Fields, the current police chief for the school district, said.
Fields said he learned of the missing items when he conducted an audit soon after he was appointed chief in July 2010. Fields would not go into specifics about the weapons reported missing.
Fields said he notified the Texas Rangers, which often investigates other law-enforcement agencies, about the missing evidence when he first did the audit. Since then, he also has found an offense report written by a former school district officer on June 29, 2009 that states evidence had gone missing, Fields said.
He also has found an April 2009 email between former police Chief Russell Washington and the school district’s human resources director discussing missing evidence, Fields said.
Washington could not be reached for comment.
Fields was appointed police chief after Washington was fired in 2010. At the time, Washington was under indictment in an alleged attempt to falsify documents to obtain a title to a vehicle.
The charges were dropped, and Washington has demanded his old job back, along with compensation.
An investigation into the missing evidence was under way, and no suspects had been identified, Fields said.
“This is not something that was done on a whim,” Fields said of the investigation. “The only thing I’m doing is trying to protect the integrity of the department.”
Someone needs to be held accountable for the missing evidence, Fields said.
He said one of the reasons he was adamant about following through with the investigation was he didn’t want to be left responsible for something that did not happen under his watch.
“I don’t want it to blow up in my face,” Fields said.
The missing evidence was kept in a locked file cabinet in a room at the high school, Fields said. Only the school district’s police officers had access to it, he said. Fields said he now is the only officer who has access to that room.
He said he has asked for assistance from the district attorney’s office and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He said Texas Rangers have come by the department and that he was working with them to file the paperwork the Rangers need.
Ecomet Burley, superintendent for the La Marque school district, said he had been made aware of the missing items by Fields.
“It is an ongoing investigation by the chief of police into the missing items and the inconsistencies in the report that was filed,” Burley said.
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International Association for Property and Evidence
“Law Enforcement Serving the Needs of Law Enforcement”
www.IAPE.org
