[San Diego County] Grand jury faults police evidence room

Report says security cameras, other measures, were lacking

The San Diego Police Department’s property and evidence storage facilities aren’t regularly audited and lack written procedures to determine when property should be kept or disposed, the county grand jury said in a report Monday.

The evidence rooms also lacked security cameras, the report said, although the department says it has added 16 since the grand jury inspection.

The jury, which serves a civic accountability function, said evidence rooms of the Sheriff’s Department and the El Cajon Police Department are better in many respects than San Diego police. Those departments have better security camera coverage and procedures for auditing the material, according to the report.

Among the conclusions by the panel was that there is poor communication between the department and the District Attorney and City Attorney about when to keep or dispose of evidence. The panel said this has led to property being retained longer than needed, such as after a case has closed.

As a result the department has had to rent storage space to keep the property, a cost to taxpayers that the panel said was unnecessary and could be eliminated with better procedures.

Other findings:

•       The room where weapons are stored is “in disarray and lacked security cameras.”

•       There are no security cameras in the property storage area either. Both El Cajon and the sheriff have security camera coverage, which is also a best practice recommended by a police training standards group.

•       There is no way of tracking who enters or leaves areas where safes are located. Keeping a record of who accesses safes is also recommended by the police standards group, the report said.

•       With no formal procedure in place on when to get rid of evidence a less formal system has developed. “Often, at the request of the property room manager, SDPD detectives decide when evidence in the property room can be disposed of or returned to its rightful owner.”

In a statement the department said that the property room is also undergoing a city audit, and the department has made contact with prosecutors to develop a reporting system for the timely review of evidence in cases.

The grand jury investigated the property room after media reports about how it is managed, how evidence is accounted for and tracked and how promptly evidence is returned to citizens or disposed of when it is no longer needed.

The grand jury inspected the main property room at the downtown San Diego police headquarters building. It is one of nine places where the department stores property and evidence, and the facilities are 95 percent full.

June 1, 2015

The San Diego Union-Tribune

By Greg Moran