Drugs for destruction
My agency has a surplus/overflow of items marked “To Be Destroyed”, items marked for destruction (held for 60 days minimum).
A lot of these items are attached to items marked “Hold” and are usually kept until everything can be destroyed.
Is there an agency who has a policy where those items can be separately signed to be destroyed on destruction paperwork and then the rest of the items
In the case can be held until the statute of limitations/time served is reached? If so, can then share the wording or section of policy that details that?
We are trying to work with the State Attorney’s Office and our agency attorney to make sure this is written correctly so that it holds up for policy.
If you have any input - could you please reach out to J. Farley with Wildwood PD jfarley@wildwood-fl.gov
We allow officers to submit items straight for destruction. Most items we are able to destroy upon intake, except for narcotics and firearms. Those are held in our Pending area until our next drug burn or transfer of firearms to the Sheriff's Office.
If I understand your question correctly, you're asking if you can dispose of certain items but not the entire case? For instances like this, we reach out to the detective or State Attorney to authorize the disposal. I just did this with our bulky items. We had several sledgehammers and bolt cutters that had previously been processed and we had no reason to hold them, helmets from traffic crashes, pieces of car bumper, sticks, swords, etc.
Our policy reads "An FIS member may require email confirmation from the assigned investigator or officer for the disposition of found, safekeeping, or evidentiary property. Assigned members are responsible for reviewina dn responding to tany email requireing property disposition confirmation with fourteen days from the date the email was sent to the member."