THUNDER BAY -- An audit of the city’s police storage found evidence is being housed properly, though the unit is beginning to “burst at the seams” due to space constraints.
Executive officer Chris Adams, who presented reports of the audit to the Thunder Bay Police Services Board meeting on Tuesday, said there are more than 26,000 items currently held in the police’s evidence storage.
Having space to house such a large quantity of items is an ongoing issue, as Adams described the situation to the board as starting to become “very critical.”
“Storage is a concern because it affects how the evidence is handled, how quickly it can be brought out if it has to go to court and the integrity of it,” Adams said in an interview following the meeting. “It will probably be an ongoing concern until we can get to a point where we can expand our capability of what we have with space.”
That audit included random sample checks, physical site checks and interviews with the manager and members of the property and stores unit.
Adams conducted the audit and in the report to the police board declared “the level of accuracy is high” and concluded the proper standards are in place and being met.
Evidence can be discarded after the conclusion of a case in certain instances, though major cases and investigations require evidence to be held indefinitely.
This past year saw a significant number of major investigations, with 11 homicides, that all have evidence that will be held long into the foreseeable future.
“There is a tremendous amount of evidence that is gathered at crime scenes. It all has to be stored, it all has to be handled from an examination standpoint and it also then has to be available when cases go to trial,” Adams said.
“After that there is a process of appeals that happens and with a major case it requires us to hang on to that evidence for a long period of time.”
The police service is looking at expanding the Balmoral Street Station to meet the demands for evidence space.
There previously had been money set aside from the city for that purpose, though it has been deferred to at least 2018.
“I was excited a couple of years ago when I saw $3.5 million to the capital budget to go ahead with renovations,” police chief J.P.
Levesque said. “We’re still in discussions with facilities and fleet.”
Board members asked about possible solutions, such as storing evidence off site.
Levesque said best practices indicate evidence be kept at the station for security reasons.
