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Police evidence rooms are 'red-headed stepchidren' of law enforcement, Integrity Unit told

At yesterday's meeting of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals' Criminal Justice Integrity Unit, created earlier this summer to examine proposed innocence-related reforms, John Vasquez from the Texas Association of Property and Evidence Inventory Technicians (TAPEIT) gave an interesting presentation about evidence preservation failures and the need for greater professionalism and implementation of best practices by police department property rooms. TAPEIT has about 600 active members who work in law enforcement agencies around the state, he said. (See their rather active message boards.)Vasquez gave these examples of property room failures from years past:In Fort Worth in 1997, a murderer used a knife stolen from the Fort Worth Police Department property room to kill someone...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on September 26, 2008 (boomark / email).