Mendocino County Evidence room: An unhealthy environment

The Daily Journal

The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office operates an evidence room in Ukiah that also serves the District Attorney's Office, the California Highway Patrol and federal agencies.

A grand jury report, "Big Changes Needed or Get A Whiff Of This," was published after grand jury members toured the evidence room and talked to the people who work there. The evidence room building is rented by the County at a rate of $3,000 per month.

One problem that the grand jury finds is that there is not good enough ventilation on the grounds of the evidence room. Current ventilation does not prevent strong smells from stored marijuana and human remains, the grand jury states.

According to the grand jury there is not enough shelves to store evidence on and there is an "abundance" of evidence from closed cases that is being held pending disposal.

"Outdated" refrigerators are said to be lacking good seals to contain odors and the building has no back up generator for electricity, grand jury stated.

The grand jury states that the evidence room seemed to be short staffed and was "inadequately equipped to ensure a healthy environment for staff, efficient evidence storage and optimal back-up of critical information."

"The grand jury questions whether it would be the best use of public funds to make the needed capital improvements to a privately owned building rather than relocating to an alternative leased facility or constructing one that is designed for the purpose and meets green building standards," the grand jury wrote.

The Sheriff, Board of Supervisors and the County CEO are asked to respond to the following recommendations that have been made by the grand jury: Relocate of upgrade ventilation and install fire sprinklers. That the Sheriff's Office get a space-saving storage system, get energy-efficient refrigerators with better seals, provide a back up power source, back up information that is kept in both paper and computer formats and assign staff to dispose of closed-case evidence, the grand jury recommends.