Best Practices Manual
Ohio Property and Evidence Room
Ohio Attorney General
See also the instructional videos on "Evidence Collection"
Introduction
Every law enforcement agency is responsible for the proper handling and disposition of property and evidence within its custody. The management, security and accountability of property and evidence rooms are critical functions of law enforcement. Yet often, property and evidence rooms lose out to competing agency priorities.
Prosecutors rely on a well-protected, well-documented chain of custody, and citizens expect secure storage of dangerous and valuable items. Therefore, mismanagement of a property and evidence room, and a lack of proper security and controls, are serious liabilities for any law enforcement agency.
Ohio’s Auditor of State and Attorney General created this best practices manual for property and evidence room management. The purpose of this manual is to provide law enforcement agencies across Ohio with a quick-reference resource to use, along with consultation with their legal counsel, to organize and manage their property and evidence rooms.
The Ohio Property and Evidence Room Best Practices Manual is a guide to developing property and evidence room policies and procedures that address organization, record keeping, staffing, security, inventory, disposal, and accountability. Each area is broken down into easy-to-follow steps and checklists, with references to resources for in-depth direction and information. In preparing this manual, staff members worked with the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy and the International Association for Property & Evidence, Inc., and researched best practices employed by several exemplary property and evidence rooms across the state.