Property and Evidence

The Property & Evidence section has the responsibility of receiving, documenting, storing and maintaining the integrity and security of all items of property and evidence collected.

Currently, Lakeland Police Department’s Property & Evidence Section has over 118,000 pieces of evidence retained in the evidence vault. During the first 7 months of 2013, the Property & Evidence section has received 8,809 pieces of property/evidence and disposed of 7,684 pieces.

There are 3 property clerks, and 1 supervisor assigned to the Property & Evidence section. The section’s hours are Monday thru Friday, 6:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., they are closed on weekends. For after-hours incidents that require a Property & Evidence clerk, there is a two week rotation schedule where each clerk takes a turn on the rotation schedule to assist officers or detectives.

Everything that is turned in to Property & Evidence gets bar-coded, and entered into a tracking system, that only the property clerks have access to.

The Property & Evidence section is frequently audited/inventoried; to make sure the vault is kept in order, and to also make sure that items are getting entered into the computer correctly, and filed in the correct locations.

When items are disposed of, and in a good enough condition to sell, the clerks prepare the items, to be sent to Proproom.com (very similar to E-bay). The proceeds from Proproom.com gets donated to the LPD Explorer program.

Some of the functions of the property clerks are as follows:

• Check in evidence daily, and place it in the appropriate location to await the court process.
• Assist LPD personnel with viewing or copying of materials that will be used during the court process.
• Assist public defenders, private attorneys, and assistant state attorneys’ with the viewing of evidence.  If there is a need to photograph paperwork, copy cd/dvds, the property clerks assist with those duties.
• Property clerks make sure that items that have been requested by the State’s Attorney’s Office to be analyzed, gets taken to the FDLE lab for processing before the case goes to court.
• The property clerks have a process that they go thru, to determine if court cases have been completed. This involves reading reports to make sure all suspects of a crime are checked in the court system’s computer system, to determine if that particular court case has been closed.  Once the cases have been checked thru the court computer system, the property clerks then send a disposal packet out to the appropriate officer/detective, advising them what the outcome of the court case was.  The officer/detective will then sign a release form, authorizing Property & Evidence to dispose of the evidence associated with that particular case.
• The property clerk’s deal with citizens on a daily basis, to determine if property and/or evidence that LPD is holding can be released.  The property clerks make sure all questions from suspects/arrestees/victims get directed to the appropriate officer/detective, so they can make the decision of releasing items being held by LPD.
• When Property & Evidence receive found property, and we know who the owner is, we send out a certified letter, notifying the owners that LPD has something that belongs to them.  We will then set an appt. for the owners to come claim their property.
• If Property & Evidence receives any found property, that has a value over $100, then an ad will be placed in the Ledger’s found property section for 2 weeks.

Supervisor

Charlotte Junor
charlotte.junor@lakelandgov.net

Property & Evidence Clerks

Ginger Fredrickson
Melissa Kant