FILE PHOTO — A rack of guns, on Friday, May 24, 2019, that were at one point seized by Lewis County deputies during either criminal or civil matters. The guns are stored in a secured property facility maintained by the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.
Inside the cavernous room of the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office property storage facility that houses seized firearms, a new trend has taken hold in the last few years — more and more of the guns kept there have been seized during the proceedings of a civil case rather than a criminal one.
Belle Williams, director of LCSO property and evidence, said that at any given time, 45 to 50 percent of the guns kept are attached to civil cases — likely due to a protection order hearing in which a Lewis County judge decided removing guns from an individual was a matter of public safety.
“Anymore, we get in more civil guns on a more regular basis than we do criminal,” said Williams.
On Thursday, the property room was maintaining a total of 469 guns — 249 of them long guns and 220 of them short arms. Williams specified that three of those guns weren’t currently kept in the property room, either because they were being used as evidence for trials or they were being processed in a lab.
“Some will move fairly quickly, at least (for) a temporary order whether that’s two weeks or six months. They’ll be coming in and out. So, it feels like there’s a lot more civil guns because those types of weapons are being handled so much more frequently with all the work involved,” she said.
This nearly 50-50 ratio in “civil” and “criminal” guns is a new trend, said Williams, adding that up until a few years ago, guns seized in criminal investigations would always greatly outnumber guns taken for any other reason.
LCSO Chief Deputy Dusty Breen said for the last few years changes in court procedures have included giving law enforcement “orders to surrender” that they must serve on the respondent in civil protection order hearings. Those orders give law enforcement authority to inquire about any firearms the person might have and seize them if a judge deems it necessary for public safety.
A representative from Lewis County Superior Court did not return a phone call by press time.
“The changes with the orders to surrender and extreme risk protection orders are one of those things that’s done for public safety and to make sure that people that may be a potential threat, that those firearms are secured in a manner where they’re not accessible. … But at the same time, it’s one of those areas that often occur that basically become an unfunded mandate … that our office is not necessarily compensated for,” said Breen.
Williams talked through the process her office must navigate every time a gun enters storage. It includes checking the serial number and tracing the gun’s history. It’s the same process, regardless if the gun was taken in a criminal matter or civil one.
Despite this, Williams said the number of guns kept in property has remained fairly consistent through the years, other than some cases where significant numbers of guns — sometimes 60 or 70 at a time — have been taken.
“It runs pretty steady as to what the inventory is, and part of that is we do a good job staying on top of court orders and criminal case matters and moving unclaimed weapons,” she said.
And while guns taken in civil matters have a tendency to move in and out at a faster rate, guns seized in criminal matters tend to stick around a little longer. Some of them stay in property for several years until the Lewis County Prosecutor’s office signs off on their release. That’s usually due to the slow-moving nature of some criminal matters or lengthy appeals processes, said Breen.
A pair of bills passed in the state’s most recent legislative session may ensure that the trend continues.
House Bill 1517 and House Bill 1225 place additional responsibility on officers responding to domestic violence incidents.
A section of HB 1225 reads that an officer responding to an incident where domestic violence likely occurred “shall seize all firearms and ammunition the peace officer has reasonable grounds to believe were used or threatened to be used in the commission of the offense; seize all firearms in plain sight or discovered pursuant to a lawful search; and request consent to take temporary custody of any other firearms and ammunition to which the alleged abuser has access until a judicial officer has heard the matter.”
“Those bills potentially are going to affect the amount of guns that are also coming into storage, and that’s again not necessarily criminal evidence,” said Breen.
