NCJ Number
182107
Journal
Law Enforcement Technology Volume: 27 Issue: 4 Dated: April 2000 Pages: 32-38
Editor(s)
Ronnie Paynter
Date Published
April 2000
Length
5 pages
Annotation
Running a police property room requires a complete and efficient management strategy to keep track of the property inventory, and several computer systems are available to automate the inventory process.
Abstract
A full line of inventory systems, including bar code equipment and software, is available from Inventory Trackers (IT). This company's software is based on the Windows 95/NT platform and is user-friendly and is also designed to operate in single user, network, and client-server topologies. IT officials indicate chain of custody software reduces the labor involved in booking evidence and issuing it out and back in again and offers significant time savings because all data are scanned with a portable scanner with date and time stamped. The software also helps police departments dispose of evidence in a timely and organized manner. The Porter Lee Corporation has developed software for police departments and crime laboratories that is designed to streamline evidence tracking procedures. The software of this company tracks items with an expiration and then generates a disposition tracer. Another evidence tracking system, known as EvidenceFile 2000, has been developed by USA Software. EvidenceFile is a Windows-based data management system that can be run as a stand-alone or in a local area network environment. Police Central markets software known as Evidence Processor that allows crime scene technicians to capture images on computer cards or disks, move them to permanent CD-ROM storage, print a contact sheet of photographs, annotate pictures, and document evidence preservation processes. JusticeTrax has produced software known as LIMS-plus to consolidate and organize crime laboratory information, and this software features discipline-specific modules. 3 photographs