In Memory
Founder
Our founder and Past-President Robin Trench committed her career to professional property management, and to providing a forum for training sworn and civilian managers, supervisors, and property officers in the fundamentals of property room management.
Robin’s commitment, dedication and knowledge will be greatly missed. Prior to her untimely death, Robin spent a great deal of time preparing and editing the Evidence Log, in addition to preparing the various workbooks, manuals and handouts needed for the training seminars.
From an interview with Robin in 1993:
“When I first started in property and evidence, a sergeant showed me to an over stuffed room and said: “Here’s the manual, good luck”. The manual was ten pages long, written in law enforcement jargon, and contained minimal information on how to operate a property room. It took me weeks to track down laws applied to handling property and then months to understand what they all meant. After about two years I found I knew everything. But it wasn’t until nearly five years later that I realized I had finally gotten a grasp on just about every possible variation that might come up. Even now, every once in a while, something new and challenging pops up to see if I’m paying attention to legal details.
In most cases, people hired to handle property and evidence have little actual background in how to accomplish the task. While many law enforcement academies teach how evidence should be collected, very few teach what to do with it afterward. The reason is patrol personnel are usually not required to know how to manage and store property and evidence. Financial transactions of the seventies moved many sworn officers out of property areas and back on patrol. Instead of a police officer with little training, para-professionals (civilians) with no training were given the task.
IAPE offers HOPE. Hope for training and education. IAPE researches questions and provides options for your consideration. Through IAPE members know that they have a resource that will help them. It’s like turning on a light in a dark room and finding yourself in a resource library.
For me personally, IAPE is a win-win situation. One can never lose through education and learning. I’ve found the many professionals I’ve met to be warm hearted and generous people. They are generous with knowledge, information and very supportive.
I think being part of a professional Association should be exciting. It should be exciting to receive a copy of The Evidence Log, knowing that articles and information are inside that help to make better professionals. It is fun to read something and realize I forgot I knew that. It should be exciting to see old friends at a training event, sharing new concepts and ideas.
About 70 percent of all law enforcement agencies within the United States and Canada are not large enough to justify more than one or two people working the property function. I think it is exciting to facilitate a class where people compare what they have. In almost every case, members leave feeling that things are better than they thought.
I think that learning, education, professionalism, fun and excitement are all important elements that create job success. I believe in the win-win scenario. Our success is in providing training and information to more members.”
Robin’s dream will become reality when every law enforcement property officer in the world has access to a forum of other professionals in the field, and a regular magazine to share the joys and struggles of the profession, as well as regular training opportunities presented at accessible locations.
