It’s easy for professionals to get a bit lax when discussing our profession. It’s natural, and most folks we speak to know exactly what we mean. So, talk as you like, but in this case, let’s make sure we know the difference.

Of course, I’m referring to evidence room audits and inventories. These terms often get used interchangeably, but they are not the same. Let’s delve into the important differences so we’re all on the same page – whether we speak like it or not.

The Difference

Simply put, an inventory accounts for physical items, while an audit checks for compliance with evidence room regulations.

Let’s look at the following definitions from Joe Altman, the Evidence Custodian and Warehouse Manager at Fortress Plus Solutions:

An inventory is the process of individually checking all or a specified portion of the property and evidence items against the agency’s records.

An audit is a review of the policies, procedures, and processes of the property and evidence functions of the agency to determine whether or not they meet the recognized standards, best practices, and are in compliance with applicable statutes and codes.

Those are spot-on.

Two Essential Resources

Inventories and audits are recognized best practices in evidence room operations. Think of them as the resources they are. Resources that enable the agency to have an accurate count of their evidentiary items and ensure that the functions of their evidence room comply with the laws, standards, and other regulations regarding evidence handling. These resources identify problems and allow the agency to rectify them. Given the high stakes involved, the importance of these resources cannot be overlooked.

High Stakes and Details Matter

The evidence preservation and storage world is highly regulated, and compliance matters. The Criminal Justice system’s integrity depends upon compliance and the ability to prove that the collecting and storing agency followed all regulations.

From on-scene collection through court presentation – a period that could take years – following the rules of evidence management protects the innocent and helps convict the guilty. 

However, mistakes in its management can cause items to be ruled inadmissible in court or entire cases dismissed.

With the stakes that high, agency leaders should embrace inventories and audits to ensure the operational integrity of their evidence facilities.

Next, let’s look at the options those resources offer to help your evidence room run smoothly.

Internal and External

Inventories and audits can be accomplished by internal or external personnel. Both have their advantages and challenges.

Internal Audits and Inventories: These can be more efficient due to the familiarity of the agency’s personnel with their specific procedures, allowing the identification of issues that might not be obvious to outsiders. Additionally, agencies can conduct internal processes more frequently and generally without incurring additional costs. A challenge with internal processes is the potential for, or at least the perception of, bias.

External Audits and Inventories: The simple fact that outside professionals conduct the processes lends instant credibility to the results and the home agency. Fresh, independent eyes can provide a comprehensive evaluation no matter its focus. A challenge could be the cost. However, most individual experts and private companies offering audits and inventories to law enforcement scale their fees and are cost-effective for most departments.

Many agencies conduct both processes, using internal and external personnel periodically. Internally, performing a rolling, scheduled inventory focusing on one section or type of evidence is useful in revealing discrepancies and rectifying them quickly. External audits and inventories can be scheduled annually, during a transition in department leadership, or if compliance or inventory problems arise. Combining these approaches can offer the most comprehensive oversight, balancing the familiarity of internal reviews with the objectivity of external evaluations.

Conclusion

Evidence room audits and inventories are separate actions. Inventories involve item-by-item accounting, while audits ensure compliance with legal and procedural standards. Both are essential for identifying and addressing potential issues before they become significant problems. Internal processes offer familiarity and frequency but could introduce bias, while external audits and inventories provide objective evaluations and indicate transparency in an agency’s operations.

A balanced approach incorporating both methods offers the most comprehensive oversight. By regularly conducting these processes, agencies can maintain compliance, ensure smooth operations, and help uphold the Criminal Justice system’s integrity.

FORTRESS PLUS SOLUTIONS

Fortress Plus Solutions (FPS) is your trusted long-term evidence storage and preservation partner. Our reputation, built on expert knowledge, the proven ability to get the job done, a state-of-the-art facility, and a central location in the greater Chicago area, allows us to serve thousands of departments and other entities, including art galleries, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and private collectors who require safe and secure storage solutions.

At FPS, our warehouse-type facility was designed from the ground up to securely store and preserve your items, providing ample space for clients for years to come.

Founded and operated by retired and active law enforcement professionals, FPS understands the unique challenges of evidence management. Our leadership team has worked shoulder-to-shoulder with law enforcement evidence custodians for decades. This extensive experience gives us the practical knowledge necessary to manage your long-term evidence storage and ensure the physical preservation of your items while strictly adhering to all relevant regulations and laws.

And that understanding goes beyond storage and preservation. We offer cost-effective services that several law enforcement agencies have taken advantage of, and each has been impressed with the results. We offer:

• Evidence Room Audits
• Evidence Room Inventories
• Expert Testimony
• Cold Case and Major Case Reviews
• Polygraph Services

Our business model is centered around a deep understanding of how law enforcement agencies work. And that includes their budgets. We know that successful vendors must deliver value to government agencies and all clients. That’s why FPS offers scalable services, ensuring you only pay for what you need, making our solutions practical and affordable.

Discover FPS’s unmatched value in evidence storage, preservation, and additional services that go above and beyond. There’s never a charge for a friendly conversation or consultation, for that matter. Let’s connect!

Contact Fortress Plus Solutions today at 888-301-1320 or via email at contact@fpsusa.com.

In today’s legal landscape, properly managing criminal case evidence is one of the most critical and complicated tasks for any law enforcement agency. From maintaining decades-old evidence and documentation to managing inventories that have outgrown their storage space, departments grapple with potentially serious problems every day. These issues may call into question the integrity of the evidence, which can make or break public trust and the pursuit of justice.

Enter Fortress Plus Solutions (FPS), a company founded to provide real-life solutions to the problems law enforcement agencies face in evidence management. These solutions have made FPS a trusted partner for police departments across the country.

This blog explores how FPS’s expertise addresses evidence management challenges, focusing specifically on the evidence room inventory. We’ll discuss some of the challenges law enforcement agencies face regarding inventory management, some of the complications FPS has encountered when conducting client inventories, and how, with FPS’s help, departments can experience the fresh start their evidence rooms need.

The Challenges of Evidence Room Inventories

One of the primary challenges FPS encounters during inventories is the poor condition of evidence labels and documentation. Joe Altman, an FPS evidence custodian and inventory specialist, notes: “It’s common, especially for older items of evidence, to find their labels, once hand-written in ink, to be faded to the point where they are almost unreadable – and some are unreadable. This makes identifying the item very difficult and time-consuming.”

You might think that hand-written labels and other paper-only documentation systems are outdated; surprisingly, many agencies still rely on them. Besides degrading labels and documents, this system increases the risk of misplaced and lost records. Upon discovery, these situations make the inventory process exceedingly more difficult.

Most law enforcement agencies use some type of computer records system, and many of those have an evidence management module. However, even departments that utilize those modules don’t always use all their features. Using the word “features” is a misnomer, really, as many of these records systems are older and not easy to use. For example, the date and time an item is placed in the evidence room may be logged, but no other events establishing the chain of custody are entered. If an item were to leave the evidence room for any reason, it would create an inaccurate record in that database.

Of course, police departments across the country do use modern evidence management systems. These systems are simple to use and provide necessary documentation at the push of a few buttons.

Efficient Inventories Save Precious Resources

At FPS, our experienced professionals are experts at conducting evidence room inventories. Departments trust FPS to save them significant time and effort compared to conducting internal inventories. While periodic internal inventories are a best practice, having skilled, impartial professionals thoroughly review – eyes and hands-on – every piece of evidence can be invaluable, particularly for agencies struggling with overwhelming or mismanaged inventories.

Time, manpower, and accuracy are all aspects of the inventory process. They are all vital in ensuring the integrity of stored evidence, which serves as the foundation of evidence management. It’s a cornerstone we emphasize in every blog because it can never be taken for granted. Human error, shortcuts, or tampering can have far-reaching consequences beyond rendering evidence inadmissible in court. Mismanaged evidence undermines public trust and can call into question the integrity of the agency, its personnel, prosecutors, and the courts—essentially, the entire criminal justice system. It’s like a line of dominoes; if one topples, the rest may follow suit.

However, a thorough inventory identifies potential issues and allows agencies to resolve them before they escalate into costly operational or public relations nightmares. And having an outside organization conduct the inventory adds credibility and demonstrates transparency in department operations.

We can’t discuss efficiency without mentioning technology, and there are “haves” and “have-nots” in this arena. Let’s check out two eye-opening examples from real FPS client inventories.

Time is of the Essence

Working with Fortress Plus Solutions streamlines the inventory process without question, but the time required to complete an inventory can vary widely. The department’s record-keeping system and the volume of on-hand evidence are the main factors influencing the time.

For example:

• An inventory of about four hundred items can take up to one full day if the department uses a paper-only system.
• An inventory of twelve hundred items may only take five or six hours if the agency uses a modern computerized system.

The benefits of using a modern evidence management system cannot be overstated. Comparing the examples above is a testament to their efficiency. The best of these systems will feature the following:

• Easy and accurate cataloging of items to include other identifying file information (metadata)
• Barcode or RFID tag scanning for quick identification
• Comprehensive chain of custody tracking
• Digital storage and easy or automated saving and exporting of the records to ensure they remain accessible for years and, in some cases, forever.

FPS: A Reliable Partner for Law Enforcement

FPS has quickly positioned itself as a leader in the long-term evidence storage industry. Their expertise in evidence management and dedication to providing cost-effective services have quickly earned them a positive reputation in the public safety sector.

In addition to long-term evidence storage, FPS offers a range of services, including:

• Evidence and Property Room Inventories
• Evidence and Property Room Audits
• Secure Evidence Transportation
• Expert Testimony
• Cold Case and Major Case Reviews
• Polygraph Services

Their services are available nationwide, and FPS has completed inventories for police departments in Illinois, Florida, and Missouri. They are continuing to expand, with potential clients along the eastern seaboard. One notable client may entrust FPS with nearly ten thousand long-term evidentiary items.

Imagine having thousands of long-term storage pieces to account for in your evidence room, and then one day, all those items are no longer a burden. They are all safe, secure, and someone else’s responsibility – that being Fortress Plus Solutions.

Conclusion

Efficient and proper evidence management is a must for any law enforcement agency. While making it easier for evidence room personnel is a part of it, the more significant issue is maintaining the integrity of the evidence and the criminal justice process itself. Fortress Plus Solutions shares valuable expertise and insight with departments to help them navigate the complex world of evidence management. Law enforcement agencies nationwide can save time and manpower, safeguard their reputations, and maintain the public’s confidence by partnering with FPS.

Fortress Plus Solutions

Fortress Plus Solutions is your trusted partner for long-term evidence storage and preservation. Our reputation is built on expert knowledge, the proven ability to get the job done, a state-of-the-art facility, and a central location in the greater Chicago area, allowing us to serve thousands of departments and other entities, including art galleries, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and private collectors who require safe and secure storage solutions.

At FPS, our warehouse-type facility was designed from the ground up to securely store and preserve your items, providing ample space for clients for years to come.

Founded and operated by retired and active law enforcement professionals, FPS understands the unique challenges of evidence management. Our leadership team has worked shoulder-to-shoulder with law enforcement evidence custodians for decades. This extensive experience gives us the practical knowledge necessary to manage your long-term evidence storage and ensure the physical preservation of your items while strictly adhering to all relevant regulations and laws.

Our business model is centered around offering not just storage and preservation services, but also a deep understanding of how law enforcement agencies work. And that includes budget constraints. We know that successful vendors must deliver value to government clients. That’s why FPS offers scalable services, ensuring you only pay for what you need, making our solutions both practical and affordable.

Experience unmatched value in evidence storage and preservation with FPS. There’s no charge for a friendly conversation or consultation, for that matter. Let’s talk!

Contact Fortress Plus Solutions today at 888-301-1320 or via email at contact@fpsusa.com.

Remember William Shatner’s voice-over during the opening credits for the original Star Trek TV series? It began: “Space. The final frontier.” It perfectly set the stage for the ambitious new sci-fi series about the crew of a starship on a five-year mission to explore beyond our solar system into the reaches of seemingly infinite space.

Outer space may be infinite, but inner space sure isn’t. Today’s police evidence rooms are a testament to that. More evidence is being collected, processed, and stored than ever before. It’s being stored longer, too. The local PD and its personnel are most affected by this increase, but the workload isn’t the problem; the need for more space to properly store and preserve the evidence is the problem. 

To the unfamiliar, police agencies running out of room to properly store their criminal case evidence might seem like a back-burner issue. It is not. In this piece, we’ll look at the overall problem and its effects on the agency and others involved and discuss a private sector solution that’s proven to work.

Maximum Storage Capacity

Your evidence folks can’t just turn on a “No Vacancy” sign if your evidence room has reached its maximum storage capacity (MSC). Are you thinking, maximum storage capacity? There is no such thing – you’re right, but think about MSC this way. MSC has been reached when every container, no matter where it’s stored, vault, refrigerator, freezer, safe, anywhere, and anything you use within your evidence room to store and preserve your evidence on hand properly – is full. Nothing is out of place. It’s orderly – even within the refrigerators, the contents are stacked neatly, labels visible, all easily accessible. It’s evidence room Nirvana in the basement of the local PD.

At MSC, the entire inventory meets the conditions required for its preservation.

With the next item of evidence submitted, you’re now “over capacity,”  

But there’s still space to use if you have to, right? Of course, how much depends on your interior storage infrastructure, room size and design, etc.

It’s important to have that “over capacity” line in the sand drawn to assess the operations of the evidence room because now, things can get messy – literally.

Inside an Over-Capacity Evidence Room

Let’s use one shelving unit’s top shelf as an example. Its deteriorating condition can be extrapolated and applied throughout the evidence room. 

Imagine a five-shelf unit open on both sides. Look at the top shelf. Eight plastic bins sit side by side. The bins are translucent and open from the top. We can see that all the bins are full, and all contain sealed brown paper evidence bags. Each bin holds a different-sized brown bag.

We revisit this shelf a few days later. Now, three bins have two brown bags sitting on top of them. Four others have one. 

On our third visit, the scene changed a lot. We are looking at brown bags of all sizes mixed into one big pile, covering the bins from end to end. There are a few evidence bags wedged between the bins, too. 

During our final visit we see that not much has changed except that there are now two storage bins on the floor next to the shelving unit. They’re open. A handful of brown bags are in the floor bins, along with four or five clear plastic evidence bags, all containing what we assume is an item of evidence. We also make note of a few brown paper bags that are now lying on top of the bins on the other shelves. A quick glance into the bins on the floor reveals, along with the evidence bags, two balled-up brown bags, discarded tape used for sealing evidence containers, and a banana Moon Pie wrapper. 

Over time, the entire evidence room will look kinda like our favorite shelving unit and its surroundings. But worse. Stacks of evidence containers take up floor space throughout the room and block access to the evidence that has remained properly stored. The tops of filing cabinets, any flat surface really, have become prime real estate for storage, including the tops of evidence containers, no matter where they might be. Cabinets for supplies and forms have been repurposed for holding evidence; the supplies now sit on a folding table in the hallway. 

Coping

Your evidence personnel are doing their best with what they have. But the evidence is coming in faster – much more so – than is going out.  

The facility has become cluttered, disorganized, a maze to navigate, and more challenging to work in. Unless addressed soon, the evidence room will become more disheveled than Jack Nicolson’s hair toward the end of The Shining. 

This chaotic environment can negatively affect inventory integrity, chain of custody documentation, proper preservation of evidence, and the efficiency of the evidence retention process. Let’s take a look at these critical functions.

Over Capacity: Concerns and Consequences

Inventory Integrity: Evidence can be more easily misplaced when it’s stored anywhere and everywhere within a facility. An agency should be able to account for the location of a particular piece of evidence at any time while it is in their custody. This can be very difficult with evidence scattered throughout the facility. 

Unbroken Chain of Custody: An unbroken chain of custody record must be maintained for every item stored within an agency’s evidence room. This record will document the arrival, movement within, and departure of the item, along with the corresponding date, time, and name of the person responsible. The unbroken part of the chain is what’s important here. A gap in the record indicates a period when the agency cannot account for its location and status. The admissibility of the evidence will almost always be challenged in court if there is a break in the chain of custody.

Evidence Preservation: Evidence must remain appropriately preserved throughout its stay in the local PD evidence room. Some require special storage conditions to maintain them long-term. Those conditions can be environmental and include storage within specific temperature and humidity ranges. Personnel must recognize the special storage status of these items and store them in a location that satisfies the particular requirements.

Evidence Retention Periods: Each state has its own laws regarding how long evidence must be held after adjudication or other event that would justify the release or destruction of evidence on hand. Basic evidence management software can track retention periods and notify personnel when items have reached their limits. This notification should be acted upon immediately to begin the removal process. 

Many agencies have been operating “Over Capacity” for a long time now; others are close to that milestone. Departments that can avoid “going there” altogether are best positioned to prevent mistakes and serve the justice system by providing admissible evidence without fail.

Private Sector Solution

Last summer, Fortress Plus Solutions (FPS) opened its doors in the greater Chicago area. FPS is a private company dedicated to providing law enforcement with evidence management and long-term storage and preservation services. FPS meets or exceeds all the standards that police agencies must abide by regarding evidence management. FPS employs retired law enforcement and other experts who operate a facility that is second to none in physical security, internal climate control, evidence tracking systems, and on-site staff, which allows them to constantly monitor all of its systems and respond immediately to any anomalies in any of their operations. They also offer secure transportation services between their facility and client agencies.

Conclusion

Police evidence rooms all across the country are at or nearing their inventory capacities. Evidence is coming in faster than ever before, creating a backlog of items held in the local agency’s evidence room. This situation is nearly overwhelming the facility, hindering its operations and personnel. The problem, caused by a need for more adequate space in evidence rooms, needs a solution. Fortress Plus Solutions (FPS), a private company specializing in long-term evidence storage and preservation services for law enforcement, offers a solution to this problem in the Chicago area. FPS will store any agency’s long-term evidence off-site at their state-of-the-art facility, creating space to work with and normalize operations in your evidence room. 

FORTRESS PLUS SOLUTIONS

Fortress Plus Solutions provides safe, secure, handling, documented transportation, storage, and preservation of evidence and property for the long term. If your items require special storage conditions – we provide that. In addition, we offer evidence room audits to help law enforcement maintain best practices and accurate and up-to-date inventory records. In our blog, we post informative articles about privatized long-term storage, the auditing process, and more. To learn more about our services, click here.