Fortress Plus Solutions: Ushering in a New Era in Evidence Management Efficiency

Fortress Plus Solutions (FPS) supports law enforcement by offering off-site, long-term evidence storage, preservation, and comprehensive inventory management services. By partnering with FPS, departments can focus on their primary responsibilities—public safety and law enforcement—while FPS takes on the complex and labor-intensive process of identifying, organizing, documenting, and properly storing evidence, all in compliance with the law and evidence management best practices.

Here’s how we do it.

1. Off-Site, Secure Storage and Transportation

Is your facility busting at the seams with evidence? Is your inventory in disarray? We can alleviate the pressure building from within and bring order to your inventory. We’ll store your long-term evidence at our facility.

FPS maintains a state-of-the-art, large warehouse-type facility that meets or exceeds all physical security standards for law enforcement evidence facilities. Our unmarked facility is protected by a multi-layered alarm and video system that monitors the building and all security and environmental control systems for anomalies. If one is detected, our round-the-clock staff can immediately respond. The facility accommodates a high volume of evidence while ensuring it remains secure, accounted for, and accessible only to authorized personnel. It also features temperature and humidity-controlled zones to preserve evidence requiring special storage conditions and a vault-like interior armory for weapons storage.

The initial evidence transfer to our facility uses our unmarked, secure, alarmed, video and GPS-monitored transport trucks. This service is also available for subsequent transportation of new items to our facility and for returning stored evidence to the agency as needed.

Storing your long-term evidence at our facility frees up valuable space in your evidence room, eliminating the previous clutter and disorganization. This new open space will allow your personnel to optimize your on-site resources, enabling you to use them as you wish. This may be the first time in years that your personnel feels like they control the facility instead of the facility controlling them.

2. Comprehensive Inventory Management

What’s in your evidence room? We’ll find out.

One of the first steps we take when partnering with a department is to conduct a complete inventory of the on-hand evidence. This is a “Herculean” feat in some agencies. FPS experts start with a blank spreadsheet and meticulously examine – hands-on – each item. It’s identified, logged on the spreadsheet, and then securely stored, initially away from the evidence room. Here, items are identified as staying in-house or to be transferred off-site. As free space in the evidence room is created, items staying in-house are returned there and appropriately stored. This approach ensures that all evidence is accounted for, properly cataloged, and easily located. Upon completion of our detailed inventory process, organization, order, and compliance with regulatory standards will be returned to your facility.

3. Efficient Evidence Processing

Retrieving evidence now takes a matter of minutes, not days.

With an organized and inventoried storage system, the potential for misplaced evidence is drastically reduced, as are the turnaround times for evidence retrieval. This environment reduces officer workload, and evidence retrieval can be described as a “best practice” within your department.

4. Reduction of Compliance and Security Risks

Our facility and your transformed evidence room.

FPS facilities feature cutting-edge security measures, including monitored access control and tracking systems that ensure every item of evidence stored with us remains secure and its location is known. Our 100% commitment to 100% compliance with law enforcement’s regulations and legal standards means that agencies who partner with FPS can do so confidently, knowing that their evidence is handled and stored according to best practices and applicable law.

After completing the inventory and transferring your long-term evidence to our facility, it’s the perfect time to conduct an evidence room audit. An audit differs from an inventory in that it examines the systems involved in operating your evidence room and assesses them for regulatory compliance.

Our experts can inspect evidence room policies and procedures, officer training, alarms, video and access control systems, environmental controls, proper storage methods, the room’s physical security, and more. When the inventory is completed, our personnel will know your evidence room, its processes, quirks, and what makes it unique. We’ll be more familiar with it than many of your agency personnel.

That’s why this is the perfect time for our evidence management experts to conduct an audit.

5. Additional Help

But wait. There’s more!

There sure is. Besides off-site evidence storage, inventories, and audits, our team of experts is prepared to help your community’s law enforcement personnel in any way we can. We offer the following services as well:

• Fractional Property and Evidence Managers: If no one is assigned to your evidence room or it’s managed by a staff member with many other responsibilities, we offer a better solution. We’ll staff your facility with a certified property and evidence specialist for the hours needed to keep your facility operating in compliance with the standards and best practices of evidence management.

We know that going forward, something must change in the management of your evidence room; otherwise, it will revert to its previous state. Our evidence management experts will dedicate their time and efforts to overseeing and assisting with the normal operations of your evidence room, ensuring continuity with your policies and procedures and compliance with the law.

• Assisting with the transition from paper-only records to a computer-based program
• Training personnel on new procedures or systems while emphasizing standards compliance
• Expert Testimony
• Cold Case and Major Case Reviews
• Polygraph Services

6. Cost Savings and Operational Efficiency

It sounds great, but what about the cost?

Outsourcing evidence storage to FPS is undoubtedly more cost-effective than building new facilities or remodeling old ones. Our storage services address the immediate needs for evidence storage space and provide a flexible solution that can grow with the department’s future needs. Our inventories and compliance audits are great opportunities to ensure your agency’s operations improve and bring them into regulatory compliance. These improvements reduce your city or county’s exposure to potential legal liabilities.

Our fees are scalable, meaning an agency that stores one thousand pieces of evidence with us pays a different rate than an agency that stores ten thousand. By investing in our services, you, as city and county leaders, can ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent on a solution that works, is cost-effective now, and is sustainable in the future.

Founded on Experience, Expertise, and Technical Knowledge

Fortress Plus Solutions was the brainchild of two highly respected, now-retired state police investigators who helped hundreds of agencies over the course of their careers with major case investigations throughout the State of Illinois. What they saw in many evidence rooms was disorganization, disarray, clutter, and evidence stored however and wherever it would fit. They experienced first-hand how a lack of proper evidence management could also affect the prosecution of criminal cases.

Fast forward to the present, and FPS has transformed evidence rooms, bringing them out of the dark ages of disarray and into the light of efficiency and regulatory compliance.

Conclusion

As evidence management challenges grow for law enforcement agencies, local government leaders must understand the importance of addressing these issues. The current problem is that evidence rooms are running out of available storage space. The consequences of this situation can be quite severe. We offer this guide to local government leaders so they know about the problem and can be better prepared if law enforcement leaders ask for help to address it. Doing so enables your law enforcement agency to comply with regulations and operate more efficiently and effectively. Fortress Plus Solutions is ready to work with your police or sheriff’s department to ensure evidence management becomes a well-organized and manageable process.

Alternatively, after becoming familiar with this issue, you can reach out to your law enforcement leaders and inquire about the status of their evidence room. It may be fine. But many are not. If not, you will have sparked a conversation that hopefully addresses your department’s challenges. In doing so, you demonstrate support for a future in which your law enforcement agency complies with accepted standards and is better prepared to meet the demands of modern policing.

For more information, please visit our website: fpsusa.com

Across the nation, law enforcement agencies face a growing crisis in their evidence rooms. Here are just a few of the challenges they are experiencing:

• The facilities are filling to capacity.
• Some are operating over capacity.
• Inventory documentation isn’t keeping up.
• Procedures that violate evidence storage best practices may be used to accept and store new evidence.

The root cause of these issues is a lack of space in the evidence room – many more items have been and are being accepted than can be permanently removed. And this has been going on for years. Evidence is piling up everywhere within the facility, leaving it very disorganized and difficult to work in. Eventually, the inventory’s condition, the steadily rising number of operational problems triggered by the inventory, and the agency’s exposure to potential liability issues justify the label “crisis.”

Local government leaders should be prepared for the day the chief or sheriff requests additional resources to regain control of their evidence room operations. It may also begin a dialogue between government and law enforcement leadership, resulting in action taken before the situation becomes dire.

This two-part guide explains the crisis in depth and offers a real solution. In Part One, we’ll discuss the challenges of overwhelmed evidence rooms. In Part Two, we’ll share how a partnership with Fortress Plus Solutions can transform your evidence room into a model of excellence.

Overwhelmed Evidence Rooms

The fundamental role of an evidence room is to securely store, preserve, and maintain the integrity of evidence until trial and its retention period ends. But, decades of accumulation, inadequate facilities, and insufficient manpower have created widespread dysfunction. The consequences extend far beyond the evidence room itself. They include:

1. Compliance Risks: The law requires police departments to handle evidence in a manner that maintains its integrity and prevents contamination. An overwhelmed facility can make compliance almost impossible. Failure to meet these standards can lead to:

• Compromised investigations
• Inadmissible evidence
• Lost cases
• Legal ramifications
• Loss of public confidence.

2. Operational Inefficiencies: When an evidence room is in complete disarray, it takes significantly longer to locate evidence. This situation can impede investigations, alter the prosecution’s case planning, lead to missed court dates, and ultimately reduce a department’s ability to effectively serve the criminal justice system and the community.

1. Chain of Custody: An unbroken chain of custody record must be maintained for each piece of evidence while under police control. The inability to locate evidence for any amount of time may break the chain of custody record, rendering the item inadmissible at trial.
2. Documentation and Records: Maintaining accurate documentation and records for an out-of-control inventory is complicated, and it can be almost impossible if paper-only records are used. Over the years, paper records become detached from items, misplaced, and even lost entirely. Printing on labels and other paperwork fades over time, making some impossible to decipher. This situation makes accounting for individual pieces of evidence very time-consuming and tedious if it can be done at all.
3. Officer Morale: Neglected evidence rooms can send unwanted signals to officers that the department doesn’t support their work, particularly in prosecuting their cases. Agencies that addressed the issue report improved officer morale and appreciation for the department’s investment in enhancing their evidence storage facilities and processes.

It’s important to remember that evidence collection, handling, storage, and preservation are among law enforcement’s most highly regulated functions. Best practices, laws, rules of evidence, the agency’s policies and procedures, and other guidelines must be followed throughout the evidence lifecycle. If a case goes to trial, everything about that lifecycle may be scrutinized, and if something wasn’t done according to the accepted standards, it may be challenged by the defense.

Inadmissible evidence may not corrupt an entire case, but it can weaken it and cause prosecutors to alter their plans on how to proceed. Except for number five, any of the problems listed above could lead to evidence being excluded from trial.

This watchdog environment makes rectifying the situation in the evidence room critical. Your support as government leaders is critical as well. 

Staffing

Most law enforcement agencies neither have the manpower nor the daily activity to justify assigning a person full-time to their evidence room. Some assign a supervisor to manage it, but the evidence room is routinely the lowest of his or her assigned priorities.

Evidence management involves strict processes that would be closely supervised in a perfect world. Not having direct supervision or anyone responsible for the daily upkeep of the evidence room and its inventory creates some of the problems discussed here and their worsening over time.

It’s safe to say that most evidence rooms will never be staffed full-time. Hiring someone to work exclusively in the evidence room, even for a few hours each week, could make a significant difference for agencies that would benefit from part-time support.

Fortress Plus Solutions offers Fractional Property and Evidence Management services to help agencies address staffing shortages. Their team comprises of experienced former law enforcement professionals, ensuring cost-effective and expert management of property and evidence.

Evidence Disposal

Are you wondering, what about getting rid of the evidence? Surely, there must be some process for disposing of it. Shouldn’t that prevent the accumulation problem?

The simple answer is no.

There is a process, but it waits at the end of state-mandated retention periods. Retention periods require evidence to be held for several months or years after adjudicating a case. And just getting to that point can easily take months or years.

For homicides, the evidence must be held forever.

Those retention periods do have an end date, however. Once that date has passed, the agency files paperwork and a judge authorize the item to be returned to its owner or destroyed. This process isn’t conducted routinely at many agencies. These dates go by, but no one follows up on them. Agencies still using paper records are especially guilty of missing the dates because they have no automatic notification system. Departments that use an automated system can be notified of the dates and at least be aware of them.

But let’s remember all the open, inactive cases or those under investigation. Such cases could total in the hundreds or even thousands. Any evidence related to those cases remains stored in your local evidence room.

Considering the facts, it’s clear why evidence rooms are overwhelmed and why agencies struggle to manage them properly.

But there is a solution to this crisis. Fortress Plus Solutions (FPS) offers secure, off-site, long-term evidence storage and other evidence management services designed to transform your evidence room and its operations into a model of best practices.

In Part 2, we’ll examine how FPS can transform your agency.

Law enforcement agencies across the country face numerous operational challenges, but a recurring issue is their inability to manage the volume of physical evidence accumulating in their property and evidence rooms.

It looks like this: The day comes when the last piece of evidence that can be stored properly is stored properly – in compliance with all the regulations and best practices of law enforcement evidence management. It sounds like a milestone to be celebrated. It’s not. It passes without fanfare.

Evidence collection in the field continues. Evidence storage continues, albeit improperly, as that’s the only option now. This is when an orderly evidence room begins to get cluttered and disorderly. New items are stacked on flat surfaces wherever there’s room, and the tops of evidence containers become another layer of shelving for new evidence. For the first time, the floor becomes an acceptable place to store containers and, later, piles of individual items of evidence.  

This is the birth of chaos in an evidence facility, and if no action is taken to improve the conditions, it will only worsen. Unfortunately, this is the situation in evidence facilities across the country.

The causes are many but include insufficient manpower leading to neglect of the facility, outdated record-keeping procedures, more evidence being collected than ever, and longer mandated storage periods.

Evidence room chaos creates new problems, some with severe consequences. Items can be misplaced, and locating specific items can take days or even weeks. Individual items of evidence can be ruled inadmissible when discovered in damaged packaging, exposing the evidence to potential contamination. Items that require special storage conditions are stored in non-compatible areas that may result in damaged or even destroyed evidence. If evidence used in filing charges is unavailable to prosecutors, proceeding with the case may be in jeopardy. Any failure of an agency’s responsibility to abide by the regulations of evidence management can tarnish its reputation and call into question its competency.

This opening section was framed to present the conditions and mention some of the problems faced by law enforcement agencies today regarding their evidence facilities. However, it could also describe the conditions and issues of one evidence room in one police department in the United States.

And it does. Let’s zero in on that agency and discover how it took control of its evidence room and what it plans to do to rebuild its entire evidence management process after years of neglect.

Background

This agency relied on an investigations supervisor to manage his workload, supervise others, maintain the evidence room and its inventory, coordinate any outside examinations and testing, and oversee their entire evidence management process post-collection. While their hearts were in the right place, this position couldn’t keep up with the duties required of the evidence function; however, due to a lack of manpower, this was their reality for nearly thirty years.

The result? An evidence room in disarray, an inventory whose numbers and history had faded from memory, protocols ignored, and an evidence management system that needed a complete overhaul.

The agency’s chief of police inherited the evidence room and its challenges. He knew something had to be done. Luckily, he knew who could help his agency and he reached out to Fortress Plus Solutions.

Fortress Plus Solutions

FPS is a highly respected, private long-term evidence storage company; that’s where the “Fortress” in their name comes in. But they do so much more. The “Plus Solutions” portion indicates they offer practical solutions to other problems and issues that law enforcement agencies deal with in the protection of their communities. They provide secure evidence storage, PLUS SOLUTIONS that address different issues related to law enforcement evidence management and beyond.

Boots on the Ground

Evidence management experts Tim Gainer and Joe Altman met with agency personnel, and they developed a long-range plan to bring order to the evidence room and ensure their evidence management process was brought up to modern regulatory standards.

Before they could do anything, Tim and Joe had to take stock of what was really going on in the evidence room. It was estimated that between five and six thousand items were stored there, but no one knew the exact number. Somewhere over time, they had lost count. In addition, no one remembered evidence ever being legally purged from the inventory.

Their first step was to complete an inventory of all the items in the evidence room.

It wasn’t an easy task.

The Inventory

All told, the inventory portion of the project took one hundred and sixty painstaking hours to finish. Six thousand items were individually handled and examined. About four thousand were identified, documented, and stored in the evidence room properly. About two thousand remained and were marked for destruction.

Gainer described the process as complex and intentionally slow. It had many starts and stops. For example, he described finding a hammer in a box, but neither was marked. Was it just a tool or critical evidence in a case? The condition of the inventory didn’t leave them a clue. One of the problems encountered was illegible labels or no labeling on the evidence at all. Gainer was sure that at one time, everything was labeled, but as years passed, some had come off, and no documentation of that fact existed. With this being the situation, that hammer could be just a hammer left behind by an employee, or it could be a murder weapon, requiring it to be stored forever. Such findings could not be overlooked, or their purpose in the inventory assumed. Several items fitting that description were found, and their histories were researched. Most were identified, but not all.

The most labor-intensive and time-consuming part of the inventory process was working with the agency’s paper records system – or trying to, anyway. It was outdated, illegible, incomplete, and a liability for the department because it did not provide accurate information about the items stored there. The chain of custody record for most items in the inventory was incomplete. The most consistent record found was the date a piece of evidence was placed in the evidence room. After that, few details were recorded or could be found.

As the inventory progressed, a separate, new record was created. The items processed and identified were logged into a spreadsheet, and their location in the evidence room was noted.

The Results

Through methodical and detailed work, Gainer, Altman, and the agency members who had assisted them on and off throughout the project restored order to the evidence room. The results were fabulous; the facility was organized, evidence was accounted for, and an environment of accountability not realized in years prevailed.

As the project neared completion, officers began to share their appreciation for Tim and Joe’s work. One officer went so far as to say that the transformation of the evidence room made him feel like his arrests “meant something” and made him feel more valued than before.

Improving officer morale may not be one of the most apparent benefits of a professional overhaul of an evidence room, but it happened in this case – with the help of Fortress Plus Solutions.

The Road Forward

With the inventory complete and the evidence room in order, the next steps of Tim and Joe’s plan are being finalized. Discussions include modernizing the infrastructure of the evidence room, creating standardized policies, assisting with the destruction of items flagged for purging, and possibly retaining FPS on a regular, part-time basis to assist with evidence management.

In addition, one of the most significant steps in the chief’s evidence management overhaul is transitioning from the paper records system to a modern, computer-based evidence management program. FPS will assist with the transition.

Conclusion

Fortress Plus Solutions is a private company with an excellent reputation for delivering the solutions police agencies need in evidence storage and management. In the case outlined here, with their expert help, decades of disarray and disorder were cleared, and the agency is poised for a future where compliance, efficiency, and accountability are routine. Thanks to FPS, what was once a significant liability is undergoing a process that will create a model of best practices in law enforcement evidence management.

It’s easy for professionals to get a bit lax when discussing our profession. It’s natural, and most folks we speak to know exactly what we mean. So, talk as you like, but in this case, let’s make sure we know the difference.

Of course, I’m referring to evidence room audits and inventories. These terms often get used interchangeably, but they are not the same. Let’s delve into the important differences so we’re all on the same page – whether we speak like it or not.

The Difference

Simply put, an inventory accounts for physical items, while an audit checks for compliance with evidence room regulations.

Let’s look at the following definitions from Joe Altman, the Evidence Custodian and Warehouse Manager at Fortress Plus Solutions:

An inventory is the process of individually checking all or a specified portion of the property and evidence items against the agency’s records.

An audit is a review of the policies, procedures, and processes of the property and evidence functions of the agency to determine whether or not they meet the recognized standards, best practices, and are in compliance with applicable statutes and codes.

Those are spot-on.

Two Essential Resources

Inventories and audits are recognized best practices in evidence room operations. Think of them as the resources they are. Resources that enable the agency to have an accurate count of their evidentiary items and ensure that the functions of their evidence room comply with the laws, standards, and other regulations regarding evidence handling. These resources identify problems and allow the agency to rectify them. Given the high stakes involved, the importance of these resources cannot be overlooked.

High Stakes and Details Matter

The evidence preservation and storage world is highly regulated, and compliance matters. The Criminal Justice system’s integrity depends upon compliance and the ability to prove that the collecting and storing agency followed all regulations.

From on-scene collection through court presentation – a period that could take years – following the rules of evidence management protects the innocent and helps convict the guilty. 

However, mistakes in its management can cause items to be ruled inadmissible in court or entire cases dismissed.

With the stakes that high, agency leaders should embrace inventories and audits to ensure the operational integrity of their evidence facilities.

Next, let’s look at the options those resources offer to help your evidence room run smoothly.

Internal and External

Inventories and audits can be accomplished by internal or external personnel. Both have their advantages and challenges.

Internal Audits and Inventories: These can be more efficient due to the familiarity of the agency’s personnel with their specific procedures, allowing the identification of issues that might not be obvious to outsiders. Additionally, agencies can conduct internal processes more frequently and generally without incurring additional costs. A challenge with internal processes is the potential for, or at least the perception of, bias.

External Audits and Inventories: The simple fact that outside professionals conduct the processes lends instant credibility to the results and the home agency. Fresh, independent eyes can provide a comprehensive evaluation no matter its focus. A challenge could be the cost. However, most individual experts and private companies offering audits and inventories to law enforcement scale their fees and are cost-effective for most departments.

Many agencies conduct both processes, using internal and external personnel periodically. Internally, performing a rolling, scheduled inventory focusing on one section or type of evidence is useful in revealing discrepancies and rectifying them quickly. External audits and inventories can be scheduled annually, during a transition in department leadership, or if compliance or inventory problems arise. Combining these approaches can offer the most comprehensive oversight, balancing the familiarity of internal reviews with the objectivity of external evaluations.

Conclusion

Evidence room audits and inventories are separate actions. Inventories involve item-by-item accounting, while audits ensure compliance with legal and procedural standards. Both are essential for identifying and addressing potential issues before they become significant problems. Internal processes offer familiarity and frequency but could introduce bias, while external audits and inventories provide objective evaluations and indicate transparency in an agency’s operations.

A balanced approach incorporating both methods offers the most comprehensive oversight. By regularly conducting these processes, agencies can maintain compliance, ensure smooth operations, and help uphold the Criminal Justice system’s integrity.

FORTRESS PLUS SOLUTIONS

Fortress Plus Solutions (FPS) is your trusted long-term evidence storage and preservation partner. Our reputation, built on expert knowledge, the proven ability to get the job done, a state-of-the-art facility, and a central location in the greater Chicago area, allows us to serve thousands of departments and other entities, including art galleries, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and private collectors who require safe and secure storage solutions.

At FPS, our warehouse-type facility was designed from the ground up to securely store and preserve your items, providing ample space for clients for years to come.

Founded and operated by retired and active law enforcement professionals, FPS understands the unique challenges of evidence management. Our leadership team has worked shoulder-to-shoulder with law enforcement evidence custodians for decades. This extensive experience gives us the practical knowledge necessary to manage your long-term evidence storage and ensure the physical preservation of your items while strictly adhering to all relevant regulations and laws.

And that understanding goes beyond storage and preservation. We offer cost-effective services that several law enforcement agencies have taken advantage of, and each has been impressed with the results. We offer:

• Evidence Room Audits
• Evidence Room Inventories
• Expert Testimony
• Cold Case and Major Case Reviews
• Polygraph Services

Our business model is centered around a deep understanding of how law enforcement agencies work. And that includes their budgets. We know that successful vendors must deliver value to government agencies and all clients. That’s why FPS offers scalable services, ensuring you only pay for what you need, making our solutions practical and affordable.

Discover FPS’s unmatched value in evidence storage, preservation, and additional services that go above and beyond. There’s never a charge for a friendly conversation or consultation, for that matter. Let’s connect!

Contact Fortress Plus Solutions today at 888-301-1320 or via email at contact@fpsusa.com.

In today’s legal landscape, properly managing criminal case evidence is one of the most critical and complicated tasks for any law enforcement agency. From maintaining decades-old evidence and documentation to managing inventories that have outgrown their storage space, departments grapple with potentially serious problems every day. These issues may call into question the integrity of the evidence, which can make or break public trust and the pursuit of justice.

Enter Fortress Plus Solutions (FPS), a company founded to provide real-life solutions to the problems law enforcement agencies face in evidence management. These solutions have made FPS a trusted partner for police departments across the country.

This blog explores how FPS’s expertise addresses evidence management challenges, focusing specifically on the evidence room inventory. We’ll discuss some of the challenges law enforcement agencies face regarding inventory management, some of the complications FPS has encountered when conducting client inventories, and how, with FPS’s help, departments can experience the fresh start their evidence rooms need.

The Challenges of Evidence Room Inventories

One of the primary challenges FPS encounters during inventories is the poor condition of evidence labels and documentation. Joe Altman, an FPS evidence custodian and inventory specialist, notes: “It’s common, especially for older items of evidence, to find their labels, once hand-written in ink, to be faded to the point where they are almost unreadable – and some are unreadable. This makes identifying the item very difficult and time-consuming.”

You might think that hand-written labels and other paper-only documentation systems are outdated; surprisingly, many agencies still rely on them. Besides degrading labels and documents, this system increases the risk of misplaced and lost records. Upon discovery, these situations make the inventory process exceedingly more difficult.

Most law enforcement agencies use some type of computer records system, and many of those have an evidence management module. However, even departments that utilize those modules don’t always use all their features. Using the word “features” is a misnomer, really, as many of these records systems are older and not easy to use. For example, the date and time an item is placed in the evidence room may be logged, but no other events establishing the chain of custody are entered. If an item were to leave the evidence room for any reason, it would create an inaccurate record in that database.

Of course, police departments across the country do use modern evidence management systems. These systems are simple to use and provide necessary documentation at the push of a few buttons.

Efficient Inventories Save Precious Resources

At FPS, our experienced professionals are experts at conducting evidence room inventories. Departments trust FPS to save them significant time and effort compared to conducting internal inventories. While periodic internal inventories are a best practice, having skilled, impartial professionals thoroughly review – eyes and hands-on – every piece of evidence can be invaluable, particularly for agencies struggling with overwhelming or mismanaged inventories.

Time, manpower, and accuracy are all aspects of the inventory process. They are all vital in ensuring the integrity of stored evidence, which serves as the foundation of evidence management. It’s a cornerstone we emphasize in every blog because it can never be taken for granted. Human error, shortcuts, or tampering can have far-reaching consequences beyond rendering evidence inadmissible in court. Mismanaged evidence undermines public trust and can call into question the integrity of the agency, its personnel, prosecutors, and the courts—essentially, the entire criminal justice system. It’s like a line of dominoes; if one topples, the rest may follow suit.

However, a thorough inventory identifies potential issues and allows agencies to resolve them before they escalate into costly operational or public relations nightmares. And having an outside organization conduct the inventory adds credibility and demonstrates transparency in department operations.

We can’t discuss efficiency without mentioning technology, and there are “haves” and “have-nots” in this arena. Let’s check out two eye-opening examples from real FPS client inventories.

Time is of the Essence

Working with Fortress Plus Solutions streamlines the inventory process without question, but the time required to complete an inventory can vary widely. The department’s record-keeping system and the volume of on-hand evidence are the main factors influencing the time.

For example:

• An inventory of about four hundred items can take up to one full day if the department uses a paper-only system.
• An inventory of twelve hundred items may only take five or six hours if the agency uses a modern computerized system.

The benefits of using a modern evidence management system cannot be overstated. Comparing the examples above is a testament to their efficiency. The best of these systems will feature the following:

• Easy and accurate cataloging of items to include other identifying file information (metadata)
• Barcode or RFID tag scanning for quick identification
• Comprehensive chain of custody tracking
• Digital storage and easy or automated saving and exporting of the records to ensure they remain accessible for years and, in some cases, forever.

FPS: A Reliable Partner for Law Enforcement

FPS has quickly positioned itself as a leader in the long-term evidence storage industry. Their expertise in evidence management and dedication to providing cost-effective services have quickly earned them a positive reputation in the public safety sector.

In addition to long-term evidence storage, FPS offers a range of services, including:

• Evidence and Property Room Inventories
• Evidence and Property Room Audits
• Secure Evidence Transportation
• Expert Testimony
• Cold Case and Major Case Reviews
• Polygraph Services

Their services are available nationwide, and FPS has completed inventories for police departments in Illinois, Florida, and Missouri. They are continuing to expand, with potential clients along the eastern seaboard. One notable client may entrust FPS with nearly ten thousand long-term evidentiary items.

Imagine having thousands of long-term storage pieces to account for in your evidence room, and then one day, all those items are no longer a burden. They are all safe, secure, and someone else’s responsibility – that being Fortress Plus Solutions.

Conclusion

Efficient and proper evidence management is a must for any law enforcement agency. While making it easier for evidence room personnel is a part of it, the more significant issue is maintaining the integrity of the evidence and the criminal justice process itself. Fortress Plus Solutions shares valuable expertise and insight with departments to help them navigate the complex world of evidence management. Law enforcement agencies nationwide can save time and manpower, safeguard their reputations, and maintain the public’s confidence by partnering with FPS.

Fortress Plus Solutions

Fortress Plus Solutions is your trusted partner for long-term evidence storage and preservation. Our reputation is built on expert knowledge, the proven ability to get the job done, a state-of-the-art facility, and a central location in the greater Chicago area, allowing us to serve thousands of departments and other entities, including art galleries, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and private collectors who require safe and secure storage solutions.

At FPS, our warehouse-type facility was designed from the ground up to securely store and preserve your items, providing ample space for clients for years to come.

Founded and operated by retired and active law enforcement professionals, FPS understands the unique challenges of evidence management. Our leadership team has worked shoulder-to-shoulder with law enforcement evidence custodians for decades. This extensive experience gives us the practical knowledge necessary to manage your long-term evidence storage and ensure the physical preservation of your items while strictly adhering to all relevant regulations and laws.

Our business model is centered around offering not just storage and preservation services, but also a deep understanding of how law enforcement agencies work. And that includes budget constraints. We know that successful vendors must deliver value to government clients. That’s why FPS offers scalable services, ensuring you only pay for what you need, making our solutions both practical and affordable.

Experience unmatched value in evidence storage and preservation with FPS. There’s no charge for a friendly conversation or consultation, for that matter. Let’s talk!

Contact Fortress Plus Solutions today at 888-301-1320 or via email at contact@fpsusa.com.

Remember William Shatner’s voice-over during the opening credits for the original Star Trek TV series? It began: “Space. The final frontier.” It perfectly set the stage for the ambitious new sci-fi series about the crew of a starship on a five-year mission to explore beyond our solar system into the reaches of seemingly infinite space.

Outer space may be infinite, but inner space sure isn’t. Today’s police evidence rooms are a testament to that. More evidence is being collected, processed, and stored than ever before. It’s being stored longer, too. The local PD and its personnel are most affected by this increase, but the workload isn’t the problem; the need for more space to properly store and preserve the evidence is the problem. 

To the unfamiliar, police agencies running out of room to properly store their criminal case evidence might seem like a back-burner issue. It is not. In this piece, we’ll look at the overall problem and its effects on the agency and others involved and discuss a private sector solution that’s proven to work.

Maximum Storage Capacity

Your evidence folks can’t just turn on a “No Vacancy” sign if your evidence room has reached its maximum storage capacity (MSC). Are you thinking, maximum storage capacity? There is no such thing – you’re right, but think about MSC this way. MSC has been reached when every container, no matter where it’s stored, vault, refrigerator, freezer, safe, anywhere, and anything you use within your evidence room to store and preserve your evidence on hand properly – is full. Nothing is out of place. It’s orderly – even within the refrigerators, the contents are stacked neatly, labels visible, all easily accessible. It’s evidence room Nirvana in the basement of the local PD.

At MSC, the entire inventory meets the conditions required for its preservation.

With the next item of evidence submitted, you’re now “over capacity,”  

But there’s still space to use if you have to, right? Of course, how much depends on your interior storage infrastructure, room size and design, etc.

It’s important to have that “over capacity” line in the sand drawn to assess the operations of the evidence room because now, things can get messy – literally.

Inside an Over-Capacity Evidence Room

Let’s use one shelving unit’s top shelf as an example. Its deteriorating condition can be extrapolated and applied throughout the evidence room. 

Imagine a five-shelf unit open on both sides. Look at the top shelf. Eight plastic bins sit side by side. The bins are translucent and open from the top. We can see that all the bins are full, and all contain sealed brown paper evidence bags. Each bin holds a different-sized brown bag.

We revisit this shelf a few days later. Now, three bins have two brown bags sitting on top of them. Four others have one. 

On our third visit, the scene changed a lot. We are looking at brown bags of all sizes mixed into one big pile, covering the bins from end to end. There are a few evidence bags wedged between the bins, too. 

During our final visit we see that not much has changed except that there are now two storage bins on the floor next to the shelving unit. They’re open. A handful of brown bags are in the floor bins, along with four or five clear plastic evidence bags, all containing what we assume is an item of evidence. We also make note of a few brown paper bags that are now lying on top of the bins on the other shelves. A quick glance into the bins on the floor reveals, along with the evidence bags, two balled-up brown bags, discarded tape used for sealing evidence containers, and a banana Moon Pie wrapper. 

Over time, the entire evidence room will look kinda like our favorite shelving unit and its surroundings. But worse. Stacks of evidence containers take up floor space throughout the room and block access to the evidence that has remained properly stored. The tops of filing cabinets, any flat surface really, have become prime real estate for storage, including the tops of evidence containers, no matter where they might be. Cabinets for supplies and forms have been repurposed for holding evidence; the supplies now sit on a folding table in the hallway. 

Coping

Your evidence personnel are doing their best with what they have. But the evidence is coming in faster – much more so – than is going out.  

The facility has become cluttered, disorganized, a maze to navigate, and more challenging to work in. Unless addressed soon, the evidence room will become more disheveled than Jack Nicolson’s hair toward the end of The Shining. 

This chaotic environment can negatively affect inventory integrity, chain of custody documentation, proper preservation of evidence, and the efficiency of the evidence retention process. Let’s take a look at these critical functions.

Over Capacity: Concerns and Consequences

Inventory Integrity: Evidence can be more easily misplaced when it’s stored anywhere and everywhere within a facility. An agency should be able to account for the location of a particular piece of evidence at any time while it is in their custody. This can be very difficult with evidence scattered throughout the facility. 

Unbroken Chain of Custody: An unbroken chain of custody record must be maintained for every item stored within an agency’s evidence room. This record will document the arrival, movement within, and departure of the item, along with the corresponding date, time, and name of the person responsible. The unbroken part of the chain is what’s important here. A gap in the record indicates a period when the agency cannot account for its location and status. The admissibility of the evidence will almost always be challenged in court if there is a break in the chain of custody.

Evidence Preservation: Evidence must remain appropriately preserved throughout its stay in the local PD evidence room. Some require special storage conditions to maintain them long-term. Those conditions can be environmental and include storage within specific temperature and humidity ranges. Personnel must recognize the special storage status of these items and store them in a location that satisfies the particular requirements.

Evidence Retention Periods: Each state has its own laws regarding how long evidence must be held after adjudication or other event that would justify the release or destruction of evidence on hand. Basic evidence management software can track retention periods and notify personnel when items have reached their limits. This notification should be acted upon immediately to begin the removal process. 

Many agencies have been operating “Over Capacity” for a long time now; others are close to that milestone. Departments that can avoid “going there” altogether are best positioned to prevent mistakes and serve the justice system by providing admissible evidence without fail.

Private Sector Solution

Last summer, Fortress Plus Solutions (FPS) opened its doors in the greater Chicago area. FPS is a private company dedicated to providing law enforcement with evidence management and long-term storage and preservation services. FPS meets or exceeds all the standards that police agencies must abide by regarding evidence management. FPS employs retired law enforcement and other experts who operate a facility that is second to none in physical security, internal climate control, evidence tracking systems, and on-site staff, which allows them to constantly monitor all of its systems and respond immediately to any anomalies in any of their operations. They also offer secure transportation services between their facility and client agencies.

Conclusion

Police evidence rooms all across the country are at or nearing their inventory capacities. Evidence is coming in faster than ever before, creating a backlog of items held in the local agency’s evidence room. This situation is nearly overwhelming the facility, hindering its operations and personnel. The problem, caused by a need for more adequate space in evidence rooms, needs a solution. Fortress Plus Solutions (FPS), a private company specializing in long-term evidence storage and preservation services for law enforcement, offers a solution to this problem in the Chicago area. FPS will store any agency’s long-term evidence off-site at their state-of-the-art facility, creating space to work with and normalize operations in your evidence room. 

FORTRESS PLUS SOLUTIONS

Fortress Plus Solutions provides safe, secure, handling, documented transportation, storage, and preservation of evidence and property for the long term. If your items require special storage conditions – we provide that. In addition, we offer evidence room audits to help law enforcement maintain best practices and accurate and up-to-date inventory records. In our blog, we post informative articles about privatized long-term storage, the auditing process, and more. To learn more about our services, click here.