Ask any police department or DA and they will tell you that knowing who and when someone has been accessing evidence can make or break your case. We too have found that over the years we’ve seen ‘evidence lockers’ that really were not all that secure.
Yes, we’ve certainly seen the good, but it's the bad and the downright ugly of evidence lockers that we will address here...
Now let's face it. Some evidence lockers are just basically a large caged area where boxes and boxes of evidence (some dangerous and hazardous such as weapons and controlled substances) can be placed--and there is no rhyme or reason to organizing it! Those examples are in fact the ugly of evidence lockers. :(
Those may look like your evidence room--? The boxes and bags of evidence just accumulate and is stacked wherever space is available, kind of like what you see in the movies where one overweight and dull officer is behind a desk, with mountains of paperwork and boxes behind him and they are complaining about whatever when the good guys have to sign evidence out?
…not so bueno when ya think about keeping the chain of custody intact and free from scrutiny--?
But those are certainly the minority of evidence lockers we’ve seen that need an overhaul. (btw; Hollywood really needs to update its image of these hard working men and women who work long hours to protect evidence.)
The fact is that for most police departments, when it comes to a simple, secure system of evidence lockers, they find that you don't have to spend a small fortune to have one. But then again, they know they won't get the same bells and whistles either...
So ask yourself; do you really need all of that for most misdemeanor cases involving evidence? Perhaps not.
We can set you up a really good evidence locker solution since some of our sales reps admit they have seen some evidence lockers that had a great deal to be desired and after speaking with numerous law enforcement agencies, we have learned a thing or two :). Furthermore our sales reps know how to squeeze each and every inch of useable space out of your police station to ensure your evidence lockers are the biggest and best they can be!
Now back to our evidence lockers story. ~ahem~ In this article the police wanted to know who was accessing the evidence lockers. And that is why the La Crosse Police Dept in Wisconsin wanted this expensive system after they caught one of their own (Lt. Brian Thomson) stealing from their evidence lockers. This tragic story then gave the department and district attorneys both reason and cause to buy a totally new evidence lockers system at a price tag of a whopping $60,000 for just 35 lockers...
That means each locker cost the department just over $1,700, each.
Wow.
So the La Crosse Police Department now have one of the most advanced evidence lockers in the United States! And it is currently being used right there in La Crosse, Wisconsin! Bravo! This system is one of two being used anywhere in the U.S., and with a hefty price tag of $60,000, it’s no wonder why only two police departments are using it. Take into account there are so few evidence lockers in the system (35) and well, it may not be too practical for medium sized and smaller sized police stations…
We will be the first to admit it—it’s pretty dang cool! But who has that kind of money in their budgets just laying around to be able and buy one of these evidence locker systems?! Not too many who would rather spend that same amount on training, jail improvements or additional officers. That may explain why there are only two of these evidence locker systems being used nationwide. They are quite cost prohibitive despite the cool features. (read article link below for what the evidence locker features are)
Owning a superb, secure and reliable evidence lockers system isn’t a difficult thing for most small and even medium sized police departments to do--and it certainly doesn’t have to cost a small fortune to keep those lockers secure and beyond reproach. It can be done for a fraction of the price tag, with many options that allow entry to only those with a certain electronic code to have access and find a software system to record who opened the evidence locker and when...like with hotel room card keys.
We have the ability to also custom build your evidence lockers to accommodate differing shapes and sizes, or with heavier gauge steel and bomb-proof electronic locks. Pretty much the way we see it is that if your officers can dream up how they want the evidence lockers to be sized and features they want on them, we can have it custom built and professionally installed--all while making use of every square inch of your station.
For a look at the original article and this amazing $60,000 evidence lockers system, CLICK HERE
