![]() After the criminal case is finished and the appropriate time period has passed, the law enforcement agency fills out a destruction authorization form and forwards it to our office. The Williamson County District Attor-ney’s Office has requested that our agencies check with us before disposing of evidence related to most felony cases in the county. ![]() There are a couple of simple checklists that may prevent disposing of evidence too soon. This article will cover the remaining kinds of evidence where there is not a statutorily mandated retention period. In the September– October 2008 issue of The Texas Prosecutor, the statutes that mandate the time periods for retaining certain types of evidence were discussed. ![]() Establish an agreed-upon timeframe during which the agency will hold evidence in most cases. If your office doesn’t already have a procedure in place, discuss a method by which their agency will be notified when a case has been completed. The first step should be to meet with the different agency evidence technicians and talk about the issues that arise with evidence retention and destruction. By educating evidence room technicians about retention laws and destruction requirements, we can take away any guesswork and prevent the untimely destruction of evidence that might damage a prosecution. Set guidelines for local law enforcement agencies to use in drawing up their policy so there are uniform standards across the jurisdiction. It is important to let law enforcement know prosecutors’ expectations concerning evidence retention. By purging and destroying the drugs, guns, and other illegal contraband that have been removed from the streets, law enforcement can make sure that these items are never a threat to our citizens again. While it may be a pack-rat’s dream to keep every item ever collected “just in case” it might be needed, the evidence room instead can become a health or fire hazard. Unless the law enforcement agency has an employee whose sole responsibility is to keep the evidence room cleaned out, it runs the risk of becoming a semi-permanent storage facility for items that nobody expects to ever need or use again. It is more than likely that everyone involved-officers, investigators, and prosecutors-will quickly move on to the next case and never give the previous one another thought. When a criminal case is over and there is no further use for evidence collected in the case, law enforcement agencies frequently get left holding the bag (pun intended). Frankly, the legislature would have had to work at it to make the applicable statutes any more difficult to understand and more inconsistent with one another, but in lieu of a complete rewrite of the evidence laws, this article will provide a few tips for your consideration. Finally, prosecutors must know whether a court order is required to dispose of the evidence in any particular manner. Prosecutors must decide what it means to be “done” with evidence, and we must recognize that this point can be reached at different times during a criminal prosecution. ![]() Of course, it’s not that easy in practice. forfeit it for use by the law enforcement agency, or.return it to the rightful owner (when allowed),.This article might have been really short because there are only three real options for evidence once a prosecutor is finished with it: First Assistant District Attorney in Williamson County
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