Evidence TraQ
Physical evidence managment system

Evidence TraQ makes it easy for everyone involved in the handling and management of property and evidence.  Officers save time; the property room saves time, eliminates paper, and is able to guard property more securely.  The browser architecture makes easy for the IT staff to manage the application and Active Directory simplifies managing permissions.  Finally, executives have information at their fingertips that no other evidence system provides.

The business of the property room is to manage property and evidence securely and accurately.  This involves careful record keeping, to assure that items are properly described and put away, so that they can be located.  Traditionally, officers fill in forms describing evidence, which are then filed by date or case number.  After the evidence is shelved and the location noted on the form, the property tech may cross reference the items and their location in a log book. 

Finding items to answer questions from the public is a several step process, as is checking items out and back to court or the lab.  The latter also involves recording the transfer on the form for each transaction.  Tickler files keep track of items out.  Property techs need to pull data together, for detectives and prosecutors to help prepare for court.  This means creating yet another piece of paper, usually from scratch.  Assembling information for reports and statistics from paper files is a nightmare; taking a physical audit inventory nearly impossible; and knowing when items can be disposed of and managing the paper involved almost as hard.  The chain of custody recorded on the original evidence submission form is both non-professional and subject to tampering.

Rudimentary automation, starting with spread sheets, requires that the most time consuming parts of evidence management remain manual and paper intensive.  Some agencies require that the evidence room use the evidence modules of records management systems (RMS).  Others can have stand-alone barcode systems.  Most forms of such automated systems are one step up from spreadsheets.  They provide limited capabilities to manage the physical items stored in the evidence warehouse.  Tickler files persist.  Search and report capabilities are limited; the chains of custody are incomplete; and the disposition process is only one step easier than in an all manual system.  Audit trails and security are limited.

Evidence TraQ addresses all of the weaknesses of traditional manual processes, as well as those of RMS evidence modules and other partial evidence systems.  Intake is quick and easy, whether from traditional officer-submitted forms or from a time saving and more accurate direct “officer proof” computer wizard.  It saves both the officer and property room time.   Managing items once in the evidence room or warehouse is easy using easily-built ad hoc searches and reports to find items using a field in the database, including one click saved query links in the side panel. 

An alert indicates cases with items, which have reached their retention date (usually the expiration of the statute of limitations) to help get rid of tickler files.  The property room can generate email requests from the system to officers to authorize disposition, in order to speed up that second step in disposition, and generate auction lists, lists of items awaiting disposition, and letters to owners to retrieve unneeded property.  The mobile barcode scanner simplifies shelving items, taking inventory, and transferring items from remote locations.

Optional modules allow the capture of signatures and their storage in the chain of custody; simplify generating management statistics; alert to items overdue for return, items awaiting disposition, and items requested to be readied for court; automate the full process of managing the authorization to dispose; keep a log of contacts regarding a case; permit mass updates records; request action on items via the web—the list goes on.  These options allow agencies to do away with their file cabinets entirely.  Shauna Adkins in the Maricopa County Arizona S.O. boasts, “We’ve been paperless since January 1, 2009.”