Kansas City Star (Kansas & Missouri), METROPOLITAN EDITION
SECTION: METRO; Pg. B8
BYLINE: LINDA MAN; The Kansas City Star
Independence, MO
Bar codes – a staple of supermarkets to keep inventory of foodstuffs – are slowly penetrating law-enforcement agencies to track evidence entering the property room.
The Independence Police Department used to organize evidence by filling out paperwork and assigning materials to a certain shelf. Now, police attach a bar code to each piece of evidence, and a computer keeps track of its whereabouts. The paperwork is reduced considerably, allowing agencies to conduct inventories more quickly and easily.
The quarterly inventory of illegal drugs used to take two persons one week to complete. Now it takes one day, said Bobbie Williams, property control technician. Bar codes are scanned, and, if anything is missing, the computer alerts the appropriate personnel.
Joe Latta, executive director of the International Association for Property and Evidence, said the bar-coding technology had been around for 30 years.
“Police chiefs are just finding out about it,” said Latta, a retired lieutenant with the Burbank, Calif., Police Department and an instructor with the International Association of Police Chiefs.
Latta said a recent spate of stolen evidence was driving agencies to reassess the operation of the property room, which usually gets the lowest priority in a department. Bar-coding can prevent thefts, he said.
“There’s been a lot of cases on missing money, cocaine, stolen guns,” he said. “And if you do a (news) search, you will be overwhelmed.”
In Kansas, former Shawnee County Sheriff Dave Meneley was removed from office in February 2000 after officials concluded that drug evidence had disappeared from his department.
“Police chiefs are wising up,” Latta said, because a breakdown in the property room discredits the agency.
The Overland Park Police Department uses the bar-code system to track officers’ equipment, such as radar and shotguns, but doesn’t use it for the property room.
“We have not had any problems,” Officer Jim Weaver said.
Independence and Kansas City police say they are implementing the bar-coding system to help control huge quantities of evidence.
“The biggest problem we have is that we continually bring in property,” said Sgt. Marty Cavanah of the Independence Police Department. “We only have X amount of space to store it. We have to, in a timely manner, get rid of it.”
So far this year, Independence police have gathered roughly 30,000 pieces, and Kansas City has taken in 40,000. The evidence includes drugs, money, furniture and other items.
The computerized system reminds officers when the time frame for keeping evidence has expired. Then the officer can decide whether the article is still needed.
The computerized system also allows officers to run programs that can aid investigations.
For example, Lt. Brian Desch, supervisor of the property and evidence room of the Topeka Police Department, said the system could track all seized handguns in the department to see whether any were used in a particular type of crime.
“Bar-coding makes it 100 times easier,” Desch said.
Latta estimated that 25 percent of law-enforcement agencies nationwide use the technology, and he hopes more will catch on.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
To reach Linda Man, Independence and courts reporter, call (816 234-7809 or send e-mail to lman@kcstar.com.
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International Association for Property and Evidence
“Law Enforcement Serving the Needs of Law Enforcement”
www.IAPE.org
