Evidence technicians receive all property taken as evidence, safekeeping or found property:

Evidence	Refers to property that is related to the commission of a crime.
Found Property	Found property is non-evidentiary property that is lost or abandoned and is not suspected to be connected with any criminal offense.
Safekeeping	Refers to non-evidentiary property maintained in department custody on behalf of the owner.

If you need to pick up property, please call

an evidence technician to make an appointment.

Evidence Technicians are responsible for properly accounting for, logging and maintaining all property received on a case until there is a final court adjudication.  If property was simply found and booked for safekeeping, the technician can release the property to the owner.

There are various statutory requirements concerning the storage and disposal of property. These are laws that specify the time periods that items must be retained by law enforcement agencies and the format of certain required notifications. Any serialized property received must be checked to verify whether it has been reported lost or stolen. When property identified and available for release to the owner, the Technician sends a letter stating that the property is at the police department and requests that the owner call so arrangements can be made for its return.

Access to the property room and other property storage areas is strictly controlled and entry is limited to only certain employees. Any movement of property in or out of the property room is properly recorded. When property is temporarily given to an officer or detective for court testimony purposes, the removal of each item is recorded on an official Property Record, which maintains the chain of custody. The signature of the person receiving the property, the date and hour the property was released, and the destination of the property are all recorded.

Following adjudication, all property still in the control of the evidence technician is released at the earliest possible date to the owner. The owner of the property must sign a declaration of ownership under penalty of perjury. After a specified amount of time, unclaimed property of no appreciable monetary value can be sold at public auction or destroyed. The Police Department contracts with a private service which disposes of thousands of pieces of property at auctions open to the general public.

All seized controlled substances and related instruments and paraphernalia which are unlawfully used or possessed are, under court order, destroyed. This is done through a service that specializes in narcotics disposal for law enforcement agencies. Guns and other weapons which are unlawfully possessed are also destroyed at a specified time each year.

Bicycles are frequently picked up by police officers or turned in by citizens. If you have lost a bicycle, call the Property and Evidence Unit with a description of your lost bike.