Police
and
Property
and
Property
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
A lot of police officers get into trouble for the way they handle, or don't
handle, the property of others. Whether it's a deficiency in training or
just laziness, some police officers simply don't appreciate their obvious,
or not so obvious, responsibilities when they come into possession or
custody of property under varying circumstances.
Your police department should have a pretty well detailed written
procedure regarding how to submit property as either evidence or for
safekeeping. It's important that you read, comprehend, and follow that
procedure to the letter. You're going to be seizing or recovering
property on a routine basis, and most of the circumstances will be
related to some kind of criminal activity.
Your directive should describe what kind of property cannot be returned
to the rightful owner directly by you. Such items would include money,
jewelry, or other named items of obvious value. Submission of these
items to the evidence/property unit of your department ensures a high
level of integrity for the department and the individual police officer for
obvious reasons. Just remember that whatever property you return to
anyone should be documented and signed for by the owner.
In this example it's obvious that the stolen property never came into
your possession. In your report, you'll simply state that the victim's
property was recovered directly by the victim, and that no property ever
came into your custody.
On the other hand, let's say the suspect held onto to the bag, and you
had to chase him for three blocks, before you apprehended him along
with the property. You eventually get back to the victim along with the
handbag. This time, you inventory the contents of the bag in front of
the victim. If the bag contains no items restricted for release, you
return the property to the victim via required documentation. If the
bag contains money, jewelry, etc, you simply explain your department's
procedure. You'll find that victims rarely object or complain about such
procedures. Except under circumstances where property must be
retained as evidence, victims can quickly reclaim their property from
the department's property unit.
This is a very simple example, but let's say the suspect threw the bag at
you three blocks away from the scene where the victim was not
immediately present. The victim is transported to the arrest scene only
moments after you apprehend the suspect. Even though you may not
have touched the property at this point, you've still had constructive
possession or custody of that property.
But...let's make this more complicated. The victim is from out of town
on vacation. She has a flight scheduled to leave your jurisdiction that
very evening. Her handbag contains several thousand dollars worth of
travelers checks. It's obvious that even a delay until the following day
to reclaim her property would cause her an extreme hardship.
Your department's directive should contain a procedure for exigent
circumstances which might be as simple as obtaining the approval of a
supervisor to alter the procedure. If no provision for exception exists,
you should make every effort to find someone of higher rank within the
chain of command who is willing to approve an exception. Procedures
for everything are amended all the time, and those amendments most
often result from unique circumstances encountered by police officers.
Your department will have a separate written procedure regarding
vehicles; however, vehicles are property, and the procedures for
property and vehicles will overlap. For some reason, a lot of police
officers simply don't get the connection. Perhaps it's because a vehicle
is an item of property which is routinely left parked and unattended
making the issue of custody less obvious to some.
As a patrol officer, you'll be handling situations involving vehicles all
the time. One rule of thumb would be whenever you take people out of
their vehicles and arrest them, those vehicles become your
responsibility. However, everything has an exception:
Police officers can be sympathetic toward people without bending or
breaking rules:
Do you see where I'm going with this? This kind of stuff really
happens, and you never want to experience such easily preventable
mistakes.
Every police department contracts with a towing company(s) to tow
vehicles recovered by police officers. In the case of traffic accidents,
your department may allow the drivers/owners of vehicles involved in an
accident to contact their own towing services if those towing services can
arrive at the accident scene within a specified time.
Every time you're responsible for towing a vehicle under any
circumstance, you'll be required to prepare a towed vehicle report.
Within that report, you should always include your inventory of the
vehicle's contents.
People often carry items of value inside their vehicles. Your inventory
search should extend to every reasonably accessible area within a
vehicle to locate items of value. Even though a vehicle trunk normally
contains a spare tire, jack, and lug wrench, you should indicate, in your
report, the presence of these items. Conversely, if one or more of these
items are not present, your report should list that fact.
When you locate items of obvious value, you should remove those items
and submit them to your evidence/property unit for safekeeping. If
you've ever had your own vehicle towed and stored at an impound lot,
you should know that the security of your vehicle is seldom a top
priority. In most jurisdictions, the vehicle storage areas are operated by
agencies other than the police department.
A vehicle inventory search is a perfectly legitimate search of any vehicle
which you are about to have towed. Along with items of value, some of
your searches will reveal the presence of contraband such as drugs and
guns.
Unfortunately, some officers will only conduct an inventory search when
they suspect the vehicle may contain some kind of contraband. When
these officers do find contraband, they'll list it as being recovered during
an inventory search. What they almost always omit is any reference to
the rest of the inventory search such as the presence of standard items
like the tire, jack, etc. They don't even mention the absence of any
items of value. No...the only thing listed will be the seized contraband.
Lawyers aren't stupid. As you sit on that witness stand, they'll point out
all your omissions. The lawyer may ask you, "How many vehicles have
you towed in the last six months?" "How many items of value did you
recover from those vehicles and submit for safekeeping." The lawyer
will end up alleging that the inventory search was just a cover for you to
conduct an unlawful search. If your cross examination goes the way of
most, the judge will agree with the lawyer.
On the other hand, if you develop the good habit of regularly conducting
vehicle inventory searches and properly documenting them as I've
described, your inventory searches will be as solid as if you were
conducting every one of them with a search and seizure warrant.
If you really want to establish your credibility on inventory searches,
you should make copies of your towed vehicle reports and keep them in
a loose leaf folder. When you're ask questions on the stand regarding
your past inventory searches, you simply open your folder and begin
counting the instances for your response. During the pause as you
count, the judge may well ask you what you're doing. Once you answer
the judge's question, the lawyer will most likely respond by stating, "No
more questions."
handle, the property of others. Whether it's a deficiency in training or
just laziness, some police officers simply don't appreciate their obvious,
or not so obvious, responsibilities when they come into possession or
custody of property under varying circumstances.
Your police department should have a pretty well detailed written
procedure regarding how to submit property as either evidence or for
safekeeping. It's important that you read, comprehend, and follow that
procedure to the letter. You're going to be seizing or recovering
property on a routine basis, and most of the circumstances will be
related to some kind of criminal activity.
Your directive should describe what kind of property cannot be returned
to the rightful owner directly by you. Such items would include money,
jewelry, or other named items of obvious value. Submission of these
items to the evidence/property unit of your department ensures a high
level of integrity for the department and the individual police officer for
obvious reasons. Just remember that whatever property you return to
anyone should be documented and signed for by the owner.
In this example it's obvious that the stolen property never came into
your possession. In your report, you'll simply state that the victim's
property was recovered directly by the victim, and that no property ever
came into your custody.
On the other hand, let's say the suspect held onto to the bag, and you
had to chase him for three blocks, before you apprehended him along
with the property. You eventually get back to the victim along with the
handbag. This time, you inventory the contents of the bag in front of
the victim. If the bag contains no items restricted for release, you
return the property to the victim via required documentation. If the
bag contains money, jewelry, etc, you simply explain your department's
procedure. You'll find that victims rarely object or complain about such
procedures. Except under circumstances where property must be
retained as evidence, victims can quickly reclaim their property from
the department's property unit.
This is a very simple example, but let's say the suspect threw the bag at
you three blocks away from the scene where the victim was not
immediately present. The victim is transported to the arrest scene only
moments after you apprehend the suspect. Even though you may not
have touched the property at this point, you've still had constructive
possession or custody of that property.
But...let's make this more complicated. The victim is from out of town
on vacation. She has a flight scheduled to leave your jurisdiction that
very evening. Her handbag contains several thousand dollars worth of
travelers checks. It's obvious that even a delay until the following day
to reclaim her property would cause her an extreme hardship.
Your department's directive should contain a procedure for exigent
circumstances which might be as simple as obtaining the approval of a
supervisor to alter the procedure. If no provision for exception exists,
you should make every effort to find someone of higher rank within the
chain of command who is willing to approve an exception. Procedures
for everything are amended all the time, and those amendments most
often result from unique circumstances encountered by police officers.
Your department will have a separate written procedure regarding
vehicles; however, vehicles are property, and the procedures for
property and vehicles will overlap. For some reason, a lot of police
officers simply don't get the connection. Perhaps it's because a vehicle
is an item of property which is routinely left parked and unattended
making the issue of custody less obvious to some.
As a patrol officer, you'll be handling situations involving vehicles all
the time. One rule of thumb would be whenever you take people out of
their vehicles and arrest them, those vehicles become your
responsibility. However, everything has an exception:
Police officers can be sympathetic toward people without bending or
breaking rules:
Do you see where I'm going with this? This kind of stuff really
happens, and you never want to experience such easily preventable
mistakes.
Every police department contracts with a towing company(s) to tow
vehicles recovered by police officers. In the case of traffic accidents,
your department may allow the drivers/owners of vehicles involved in an
accident to contact their own towing services if those towing services can
arrive at the accident scene within a specified time.
Every time you're responsible for towing a vehicle under any
circumstance, you'll be required to prepare a towed vehicle report.
Within that report, you should always include your inventory of the
vehicle's contents.
People often carry items of value inside their vehicles. Your inventory
search should extend to every reasonably accessible area within a
vehicle to locate items of value. Even though a vehicle trunk normally
contains a spare tire, jack, and lug wrench, you should indicate, in your
report, the presence of these items. Conversely, if one or more of these
items are not present, your report should list that fact.
When you locate items of obvious value, you should remove those items
and submit them to your evidence/property unit for safekeeping. If
you've ever had your own vehicle towed and stored at an impound lot,
you should know that the security of your vehicle is seldom a top
priority. In most jurisdictions, the vehicle storage areas are operated by
agencies other than the police department.
A vehicle inventory search is a perfectly legitimate search of any vehicle
which you are about to have towed. Along with items of value, some of
your searches will reveal the presence of contraband such as drugs and
guns.
Unfortunately, some officers will only conduct an inventory search when
they suspect the vehicle may contain some kind of contraband. When
these officers do find contraband, they'll list it as being recovered during
an inventory search. What they almost always omit is any reference to
the rest of the inventory search such as the presence of standard items
like the tire, jack, etc. They don't even mention the absence of any
items of value. No...the only thing listed will be the seized contraband.
Lawyers aren't stupid. As you sit on that witness stand, they'll point out
all your omissions. The lawyer may ask you, "How many vehicles have
you towed in the last six months?" "How many items of value did you
recover from those vehicles and submit for safekeeping." The lawyer
will end up alleging that the inventory search was just a cover for you to
conduct an unlawful search. If your cross examination goes the way of
most, the judge will agree with the lawyer.
On the other hand, if you develop the good habit of regularly conducting
vehicle inventory searches and properly documenting them as I've
described, your inventory searches will be as solid as if you were
conducting every one of them with a search and seizure warrant.
If you really want to establish your credibility on inventory searches,
you should make copies of your towed vehicle reports and keep them in
a loose leaf folder. When you're ask questions on the stand regarding
your past inventory searches, you simply open your folder and begin
counting the instances for your response. During the pause as you
count, the judge may well ask you what you're doing. Once you answer
the judge's question, the lawyer will most likely respond by stating, "No
more questions."
You're on foot patrol at a strip mall when you hear a woman
screaming. Not more that 50 feet away from you on the
sidewalk, you see a woman struggling with a young man
who is trying to take the woman's handbag.
Before you can even begin to run toward them, the suspect
has the woman's bag, and he's running directly toward you.
You simply draw your nightstick and wait for him. The
dummy is nearly on top of you, before he realizes his
blunder. As he tries to change direction, he throws the
woman's bag at you to try to delay you. His aim isn't any
better than his eyesight, and you're on top of him in an
instant.
After you subdue and handcuff the suspect, you see the
woman kneeling on the sidewalk. When the bag hit the
pavement, all the contents spilled from the bag. The victim
is retrieving the contents including currency and coins.
screaming. Not more that 50 feet away from you on the
sidewalk, you see a woman struggling with a young man
who is trying to take the woman's handbag.
Before you can even begin to run toward them, the suspect
has the woman's bag, and he's running directly toward you.
You simply draw your nightstick and wait for him. The
dummy is nearly on top of you, before he realizes his
blunder. As he tries to change direction, he throws the
woman's bag at you to try to delay you. His aim isn't any
better than his eyesight, and you're on top of him in an
instant.
After you subdue and handcuff the suspect, you see the
woman kneeling on the sidewalk. When the bag hit the
pavement, all the contents spilled from the bag. The victim
is retrieving the contents including currency and coins.
| Your Responsibilities for Vehicles |
You respond to a suspect's home in possession of an arrest
warrant for the suspect regarding an earlier assault. When
you arrive at the suspect's home, you observe him entering
his car which is parked in the driveway of his home.
You block the driveway with your vehicle, before the
suspect has an opportunity to leave the driveway. You
subsequently remove the suspect from his vehicle, and you
arrest him.
What is your responsibility regarding the suspect's vehicle?
Since the vehicle has no connection with the crime
regarding the arrest warrant, your only responsibility would
be to ensure the vehicle is secure, before you take the
suspect away. The vehicle was and remains on the suspect's
private property.
This whole picture would change if you arrive only to see
the suspect backing from his driveway. You catch up to the
suspect a block from his home, and you stop him in a traffic
lane. Now...the suspect's vehicle is clearly in your custody,
and it's your responsibility. Or...when the suspect sees your
signals for him to pull over, he drives onto a parking lot,
and he parks his vehicle in a space out of the parking lot's
traffic lane. The car is still your responsibility, because
your action caused him to stop no matter if the vehicle is
legally parked.
The suspect has a friend with him in the car. The friend is a
licensed driver, and the suspect wants his friend to take
custody of the car. Is the friend's name on the car's
registration? Likely not. No...the car is still in your
custody. Had the friend been driving the suspect's car when
you stopped them, the custody of the car wouldn't even be a
question. You'd simply take the suspect, and you'd leave
the car with the friend.
You're only a block from the suspect's home, and he asks
that his wife, who is at home, take possession of the car.
Again, the wife's name must be on the registration. Bottom
line...never release a vehicle to anyone other than a
registered owner. Again, there are exceptions. In the
instance of commercially owned vehicles, you can release
vehicles to authorized employees.
warrant for the suspect regarding an earlier assault. When
you arrive at the suspect's home, you observe him entering
his car which is parked in the driveway of his home.
You block the driveway with your vehicle, before the
suspect has an opportunity to leave the driveway. You
subsequently remove the suspect from his vehicle, and you
arrest him.
What is your responsibility regarding the suspect's vehicle?
Since the vehicle has no connection with the crime
regarding the arrest warrant, your only responsibility would
be to ensure the vehicle is secure, before you take the
suspect away. The vehicle was and remains on the suspect's
private property.
This whole picture would change if you arrive only to see
the suspect backing from his driveway. You catch up to the
suspect a block from his home, and you stop him in a traffic
lane. Now...the suspect's vehicle is clearly in your custody,
and it's your responsibility. Or...when the suspect sees your
signals for him to pull over, he drives onto a parking lot,
and he parks his vehicle in a space out of the parking lot's
traffic lane. The car is still your responsibility, because
your action caused him to stop no matter if the vehicle is
legally parked.
The suspect has a friend with him in the car. The friend is a
licensed driver, and the suspect wants his friend to take
custody of the car. Is the friend's name on the car's
registration? Likely not. No...the car is still in your
custody. Had the friend been driving the suspect's car when
you stopped them, the custody of the car wouldn't even be a
question. You'd simply take the suspect, and you'd leave
the car with the friend.
You're only a block from the suspect's home, and he asks
that his wife, who is at home, take possession of the car.
Again, the wife's name must be on the registration. Bottom
line...never release a vehicle to anyone other than a
registered owner. Again, there are exceptions. In the
instance of commercially owned vehicles, you can release
vehicles to authorized employees.
You're a new, young male police officer, and you stop a
suspected drunk driver. You quickly observe the driver is
loaded. The driver is also a young, attractive woman. As
drunks go, she's a pretty good drunk. She's polite and not
abusive in any way. She fails every sobriety test, and
there's no question about arresting her.
She begs you not to tow her father's car. Here's where your
compassion, or better said your stupidity, gets the better of
you. You make your first mistake by moving her car onto a
parking lot adjacent to where you stopped her. You make
your second mistake by not noticing a large sign posted on
the side of a building stating, "Unauthorized Vehicles Towed
at Owner's Expense."
The arrest goes smoothly, and you even get a couple of
hours of overtime as a result. The next day, you report for
work where your sergeant goes up one side of you and down
the other. You learn that the pretty girl's car was towed by
a less than reputable towing service. After the girl's father
recovered from the shock of the ridiculously expensive
towing and storage charge, he found that both his laptop
computer and digital camera were missing from the trunk
of the car.
suspected drunk driver. You quickly observe the driver is
loaded. The driver is also a young, attractive woman. As
drunks go, she's a pretty good drunk. She's polite and not
abusive in any way. She fails every sobriety test, and
there's no question about arresting her.
She begs you not to tow her father's car. Here's where your
compassion, or better said your stupidity, gets the better of
you. You make your first mistake by moving her car onto a
parking lot adjacent to where you stopped her. You make
your second mistake by not noticing a large sign posted on
the side of a building stating, "Unauthorized Vehicles Towed
at Owner's Expense."
The arrest goes smoothly, and you even get a couple of
hours of overtime as a result. The next day, you report for
work where your sergeant goes up one side of you and down
the other. You learn that the pretty girl's car was towed by
a less than reputable towing service. After the girl's father
recovered from the shock of the ridiculously expensive
towing and storage charge, he found that both his laptop
computer and digital camera were missing from the trunk
of the car.
| Towing Vehicles |
| The Vehicle Inventory Report |
| Vehicle Inventory Search and the Court Room |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| Copyright © 2006 - 2008 - Barry M. Baker - CareerPoliceOfficer.com |
| Disclaimer |
| or any changes or updates to such sites. Links are provided only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement by this site. |
| Online Video Learning Systems: Police Exam - U.S. Border Patrol Exam |