Property room disposal

Property rooms come in all shapes, sizes and some are neat and organized while others require lots of organization.

Officer acquires evidence Life Cycle of Evidence To/From : Testing Prosecutor Courts Officer acquires evidence Property Vault Storage End of Life for held Property/Evidence : Indefinite Hold Return to Owner Destroy

Statute of Limitations Generally evidence not involved in any type of criminal or civil case must be kept: Found Property- 6 months Felonies – 3 years Misdemeanors- 18 months The following have no time limit or an extended limit: First/Second/Involuntary Murder – No Time Limit Forcible Rape – 10 years Criminal Sex Assault – 10 years Sex Assault with object – 10 years Predatory Criminal Sex Assault of Child – 20 years Arson – No Time Limit Forgery – No Time Limit Identity Theft – 5 years

Illinois requires the permanent retention of physical evidence upon conviction in: 1st degree murder 2nd degree murder Involuntary Manslaughter Reckless Homicide Drug Induced Homicide Intentional Homicide of unborn child The lesser included offenses If the defendant is acquitted then the items may be returned to owner, or destroyed.

Retention of evidence for 25 years upon conviction for the following offenses: Criminal Sexual Assault Aggravated Criminal Sexual Assault Predatory Criminal Sex Assault of Child Criminal Sex Abuse and Aggravated Criminal Sex Abuse Retention of evidence for 7 years upon conviction for the following: Upon conviction for any felony for which the defendant’s genetic profile was used for DNA comparison in unsolved cases. Periods excluded from Statute of Limitations: Defendant is out of state Defendant is public officer and offense is theft of public funds There is pending prosecution for same conduct There is a proceeding or appeal related to quashing or enforcing a grand jury subpoena Material witness is on active military duty

Property Disposal means without court order Provides that if there is property in the custody of a law enforcement agency whose ownership has been unascertained for at least 6 months, a sheriff, police chief, or principal law enforcement official, who determines that the public interest would be served, may donate the property to a registered charity or transfer the property to the local government of which the official is a part or to the State (instead of transfer the property to the local government of which the official is a part or to the State). Provides that if the sheriff, chief of police, or other principal law enforcement official determines that the public interest would be best served by donating unclaimed property, he or she may donate unclaimed property that is worth less than $100, if the donation is approved by the governing body of which the law enforcement agency is a part (instead of donate the property), to a charitable organization that is currently registered with the State. 765 ILCS 1030/3 ......................................................................... Effective Date January 1, 2012

Ok now how do I go about getting rid of the stuff.

Identify property when received Evidence Property Hold for owner Make use of Statute of Limitations table for all cases Set up and use “Beast” reminder files On quarterly basis send out status queries to your officers for status updates. Set up with your court officer/Records section to get updates on all cases assigned to court when cases have been adjudicated. Quarterly run report queries on in custody evidence/property to learn which items have reached their hold requirements. Those items that have reached their time limits not involved in a criminal or civil case, update statues to prepare for destruction status.

BEAST Evidence Management System Keep track of status of owner Notifications. An example of this would be when the property officer sends out an owner letter. The system will update the item process to show an owner letter was sent. The Property officer can then review and check 30 days later which items still have this status based on the fact that they still have not been returned. Typically these items can then be transferred to a destruction status and assigned a new item process so that they can later be disposed of.

Review Date This report is most useful for obtaining list of items that have a review date between the selected date ranges. To see a list items collected as Found Property that have review date falls between 01/01/2013 and 03/31/2013, use the following parameters: Parameter Selection Starting Review Date Enter 01/01/2013 Ending Review Date Enter 03/31/2013 Collection Purpose Select Found Property.

Use of Dispo Requests The paperless online Dispo feature allows the property staff to direct disposition letters either thru the case officer or the case officer’s/division’s chain of command. For instance in a large agency at the time of submission, a case may simply be assigned to a division with no case officer identified. The property staff may then send the Dispo letter to the commander of the division who will then be able to disperse all of the letters for that division to the corresponding investigator. When the investigator completes his review of the letter, the letter is automatically then re-routed back thru the chain of command for approval. By doing this the Property staff is able to ensure that all required parties have reviewed and approved the submitted Dispo when they receive the letter back in the property queue. During this entire process the Property staff can monitor who has the letter utilizing the case letter summary panel or the item due program. The person who is currently working on the letter will show as the responsible officer for the in these applications.

Destruction Request The Destruction Request Letter is a request for the permission to destroy property held in the lockers. The letter is directed toward the person responsible for approving the destruction of property. There are two letters you can generate: First Request Letter and Follow Up Request Letter

Drug Destruction (415 ILCS 5/22.58 new) Sec. 22.58. Drug destruction by law enforcement agency. (a) For purposes of this Section: "Drug destruction device" means a device that is (i)designed by its manufacturer to destroy drug evidence and render it non-retrievable and (ii) used exclusively for that purpose. "Drug evidence" means any illegal drug collected as evidence by a law enforcement agency. "Drug evidence" does not include hazardous waste. "Illegal drug" means any one or more of the following when obtained without a prescription or otherwise in violation of the law:

Barrel Burners Equipment now being used throughout the state.

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