Centralia Police Chief Carl Nielsen spoke March 9, 2017, at a public safety meeting at Fort Borst Park about several issues, including property crime and the department's new online crime reporting system.
The Centralia Police Department, in an effort to improve evidentiary organization and to stay one step ahead of accreditation requirements, will be using $25,000 of drug seizure funds to make improvements to its property rooms.
Primarily, said Chief Carl Nielsen, the money will go toward consistent shelving in a room used for property holding. Nielsen said the main evidence room at the station got the same treatment about a year prior, and now they’re keen on doing the same in a smaller room also on-site.
If possible, Nielsen added, they’ll purchase a camera system to monitor the goings on inside the property room — a function Nielsen said he saw at an evidence room in Lacey.
“While it’s not required (for accreditation) yet, they’ve got a camera system that has views of everything … we’re going to take a look at getting a bid on that too, see if we can include it in the price,” he said.
All the money used — to the tune of $25,000 — came from seizures made by the Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team, a collaborative task force that includes the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office and Chehalis and Centralia police departments and focuses on snuffing out local drug operations.
Funds garnered through seizures varies from year to year and is largely unpredictable, but money — whether it’s cash or liquidated assets used in the commission of drug-related crime — is distributed between involved law enforcement entities and must go toward combating illicit drugs. Ten percent goes to the state.
Currently, Nielsen said, the smaller property room has uneven and mismatching shelves, making storage and organization a chore. The new shelving should combat that, he said.
The camera system is secondary.
“It’s not part of the accreditation yet … but I’d rather stay one step ahead as we can, and it’s great checks and balances,” said Nielsen, who added the department will seek accreditation in 2019.
The department’s property room was the subject of a couple headlines in late August, when an internal audit unveiled more 100 errors in the organization and records keeping of pieces of evidence. Nielsen told The Chronicle at the time that none of the mistakes affected active cases.
Shortly after, Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer determined there was no criminal wrongdoing on behalf of the property room manager, who voluntarily changed assignments within the department.
Since then, Nielsen said there haven’t appeared to be any similar problems in the property room. A new clerk has been hired, he said, and random inspections happen on a monthly basis. Those inspections typically include a random look at five different items in the room. An audit happens every six months or so, he said.
