NCJ Number
189007
Journal
Law and Order Volume: 49 Issue: 5 Dated: May 2001 Pages: 49-52
Date Published
May 2001
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article discusses principles for managing the custody of evidence.
Abstract
Four issues face evidence management today. First, less than 3 percent of evidence is used in prosecutions. Second, the demand on the average evidence room increases at a compounded, geometric rate of 24 percent per year. Third, jurors are less inclined to trust the stewardship of evidence due to media scandal. Fourth, the profession of evidence management has been ineffective in obtaining improved retention guidelines. Evidence custodians are typically sworn personnel and are among the lowest paid in the department. The professionalization of evidence management requires the use of the most up-to-date principles of inventory management. The retail industry pioneered the use of barcodes in the early 1970's. This technology was needed to offset the increasing costs of inventory management in high volume operations. In order to effectively barcode evidence, three issues must be addressed: unique label, label survivability, and label integrity. This article details what is involved in addressing each of these issues. The trend toward the independence of evidence management may lead to private organizations that house evidence following the lead of private prisons. Police must ally themselves with business "inventory" methods and training to beat their rising evidence costs.