The Evidence Unit is responsible and accountable for the control of all evidence including found/recovered property stored in the evidence storage areas. It is important to preserve evidence, to keep the items safe and to keep the integrity intact so that they may be used in court.

The personnel assigned to the Evidence Unit are responsible for all phases of maintaining the evidence. This includes receiving, data input, bar-coding, storage, inventory, media duplication, research, transfer items to court/lab, returning items to owners and disposal of evidence.

The Evidence Unit receives about 16,000 items a year from the Sheriff’s Office and other agencies. About one tenth of the items are found property, with the bulk of the items taken in being case evidence. There are typically about 50,000 total items in storage at any given time.

While Evidence personnel make efforts to return items to the rightful owners, many items of both found property and evidence remain in storage as unclaimed. After the require time limits have passed, when these items remain unclaimed, the Sheriff’s Office donates many of the items to various non-profit organizations.

Click here to see the current list of found property scheduled to be disposed of unless claimed by the owner.