IAPE Board Member

Law Enforcement Experience: 

Hope Martin is the Evidence Manager for the Madison, NC Police Department. She has a 19-year law enforcement background, spending the last 10 years in the evidence room.

She started her career as a police officer for the Greensboro, NC Police Department. In 2014, Hope became the first Evidence Specialist for the Reidsville, NC Police Department. This was after a state investigation of theft and mishandling in the evidence room. Although she was new to the evidence world, she quickly realized the crisis in Reidsville could have been prevented. It became Hope’s passion to one day educate the law enforcement community on how to properly manage their evidence rooms to prevent theft and mishandling.

While at the Reidsville Police Department, Hope wrote policy and procedures for her agency and completely revamped how officers collected, documented, and packaged evidence. She oversaw a construction addition to the evidence room. She also developed an organizational system that would ensure evidence was not only stored according to standards, but that was quickly located when needed.

Hope is a Certified Property and Evidence Specialist through IAPE. She served as the Conference Committee Chairperson for the North Carolina Association for Property and Evidence from 2016-2022. In 2018, Hope developed a 16-hour course titled “Evidence Room Supervision and Administration” for law enforcement agencies in NC. She has been teaching that course since 2019 at the North Carolina Justice Academy, as well as Cape Fear Community College. Hope is a General Instructor for the State of North Carolina and teaches Basic Law Enforcement Training at Rockingham Community College. She is also trained in Crime Scene Investigations through Central Piedmont Community College. Hope has a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice from Gardner-Webb University.

Hope has presented at the North Carolina Association of Chiefs of Police Conference, the North Carolina Police Executives Conference and the North Carolina Association for Property and Evidence Conference on Evidence Room Management.

In her personal time, Hope enjoys traveling and spending time with her husband and son.