It may all turn out OK, but it makes you wonder, especially after Los Alamos, if ANYBODY in authority has their $h!t together.
http://www.insidedenver.com/news/0628prop0.shtml
Guns, drugs gone from police stash
Chief blames it on 'paperwork problem'; search for missing $100,000 continues
By Dan Luzadder
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer
The list of items missing from the Denver police property room has expanded to include a half-dozen firearms and narcotics from several criminal cases.
Acting police Chief Gerry Whitman said Tuesday he is "hopeful" that a continuing internal investigation will show the weapons and drugs were disposed of legally.
"I think what we've got is basically a problem with the paperwork," Whitman said. "We're really talking about a small number out of the total weapons that we have there."
Whitman launched a criminal investigation in May after an extensive property room audit showed that nearly $100,000 in cash was missing from 11 pending criminal cases, dating to 1992.
He ordered the audit in April after police and prosecutors could not find about $30,000 in cash from two pending criminal cases.
In the past two months, detectives have conducted about 60 interviews, but have not sought criminal charges.
"They're still working on it," Whitman said.
Meanwhile, an inventory of drugs and guns is finished.
"We've legally disposed of 47 boxes of guns just to reduce the inventory that we had there," Whitman said. "Even after that, we still have some 3,600 weapons in the property room."
Whitman declined to elaborate on the guns that are unaccounted for, but said officers initially were working with a list of a dozen missing firearms and had determined six were disposed of properly.
Missing narcotics include evidence from a few criminal cases, and also incidents where drugs were found or confiscated but no charges filed.
"We're checking now to be sure that no criminal cases have been compromised," Whitman said, "and I don't believe any have been, at this point."
The property room is a highly secure area in which evidence is catalogued and stored pending a judicial resolution.
But the property room is also used to store lost, unclaimed and confiscated property that comes into the city's possession from places like Denver International Airport, sports venues and other public facilities.
Procedures for evidence control have been revised under Whitman's direction since he took over as interim police chief four months ago.
Whitman said Tuesday he does not know when the criminal investigation into the missing $100,000 will be concluded.
A former garbage collector said last month that over a period of a couple of years, he had found knives, drugs and one firearm — which was inoperable — in trash bins kept in the basement of the Denver police headquarters. He said he also found small quantities of cash that had been thrown out.
Contact Dan Luzadder at 303-892-2600 or Luzadder@RockyMountainNews.com.
© Copyright, Denver Publishing Co.
http://www.insidedenver.com/news/0628prop0.shtml
Guns, drugs gone from police stash
Chief blames it on 'paperwork problem'; search for missing $100,000 continues
By Dan Luzadder
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer
The list of items missing from the Denver police property room has expanded to include a half-dozen firearms and narcotics from several criminal cases.
Acting police Chief Gerry Whitman said Tuesday he is "hopeful" that a continuing internal investigation will show the weapons and drugs were disposed of legally.
"I think what we've got is basically a problem with the paperwork," Whitman said. "We're really talking about a small number out of the total weapons that we have there."
Whitman launched a criminal investigation in May after an extensive property room audit showed that nearly $100,000 in cash was missing from 11 pending criminal cases, dating to 1992.
He ordered the audit in April after police and prosecutors could not find about $30,000 in cash from two pending criminal cases.
In the past two months, detectives have conducted about 60 interviews, but have not sought criminal charges.
"They're still working on it," Whitman said.
Meanwhile, an inventory of drugs and guns is finished.
"We've legally disposed of 47 boxes of guns just to reduce the inventory that we had there," Whitman said. "Even after that, we still have some 3,600 weapons in the property room."
Whitman declined to elaborate on the guns that are unaccounted for, but said officers initially were working with a list of a dozen missing firearms and had determined six were disposed of properly.
Missing narcotics include evidence from a few criminal cases, and also incidents where drugs were found or confiscated but no charges filed.
"We're checking now to be sure that no criminal cases have been compromised," Whitman said, "and I don't believe any have been, at this point."
The property room is a highly secure area in which evidence is catalogued and stored pending a judicial resolution.
But the property room is also used to store lost, unclaimed and confiscated property that comes into the city's possession from places like Denver International Airport, sports venues and other public facilities.
Procedures for evidence control have been revised under Whitman's direction since he took over as interim police chief four months ago.
Whitman said Tuesday he does not know when the criminal investigation into the missing $100,000 will be concluded.
A former garbage collector said last month that over a period of a couple of years, he had found knives, drugs and one firearm — which was inoperable — in trash bins kept in the basement of the Denver police headquarters. He said he also found small quantities of cash that had been thrown out.
Contact Dan Luzadder at 303-892-2600 or Luzadder@RockyMountainNews.com.
© Copyright, Denver Publishing Co.