IAPE Monthly Newsletter

MAY 2016 - IAPE Monthly Newsletter

Ask Joe...

Each month, IAPE's primary instructor, Joe Latta, answers one of your questions. Consider writing us if you have a question that needs an answer. We would love to hear from you.

To submit a question for Joe Contact Us

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QUESTION

Dear Joe,

Good morning! Thank you again for a great class a few weeks ago in Coral Springs. My new Lt. being there was incredibly helpful as well. I have a quick question for you, or opinion inquiry.

Is there a guideline to follow (other than individual department policy) on how long to keep these "information only" type of items. Like such...

-Traffic accident photos, no charges filed

-Dog bite photos, no charges filed,

-Attended death photos

-Graffiti photos, no charges filed

Thanks,

Catherine in Florida

ANSWER

Dear Catherine,

The reason you have them is "cause we always have", and in some cases the question has never been asked, why?

I'm guessing that you will not find two department's in the country that handles their records that same. The first question that needs to be asked is does your state, city or county have a Records Retention law. The one person that may have this information would be your City Clerk or your Records Manager.

As a new Sergeant at my former Police Department, I found some interesting things that made no sense when it came to records retention and when I asked about it, the response was "this is the way we have always done it". The issue at hand was we were retaining certain documents by an establish time frame. For example, most misdemeanors reports were purged after 3 years and certain felonies after 7 years and other more serious crime much longer.

Every year the City Council passed a resolution for the various city departments to purge certain aged records. At the time, we were keeping fingerprint lifts and photographs archived in the property room. Every year I would get a copy of the resolution and go through the list and purge those old records that in most cases were the property records. When I started examining the full retention list a little closer, I found that there were provisions to purge all photographs after 10 years and fingerprints lifts after 10 years. As an inquisitive young new Sergeant, I asked a very simple question". If we have purged the crime report and the property records, why are we retaining the photos and fingerprint years longer? If the reports are gone, how would we have access to locate the prints and photo?

You ask what did this all accomplish. The following year after I had made an issue of the City's Retention guideline they were all changed so that when the crime report / incident report was purged so were any related photos and prints. To sum up the retention issue, ask questions, ask questions and then ask more questions. In some cases the question can make positive changes.

Regards,

Joe

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Headline of the Month

They Have Something You Don't Want!

Scenes of death roll slowly

up rural highways

Date: May 13, 2016

WAVERLY - In a macabre and surreal scene, three of the four residences where eight family members were killed last month crawled along rural highways Thursday afternoon as authorities hauled them to a warehouse where they will be stored as evidence.

Two trailers and one camper, every window and door boarded with plywood, took a two-hour journey of 22 miles, first eastward on Ohio Route 32, then northward on U.S. Route 23 to the Relevant Compounding property in Waverly. That's where the state's Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Pike County sheriff's investigators have set up their command center in an effort to catch the killer or killers.

Moving three crime scenes, even ones with wheels, is not a simple process. At one point, the convoy stopped on the shoulder of eastbound Route 32. A driver of one of the trucks was seen rolling a tire to the rear of the mobile home he was hauling.

Authorities seeking answers in the April 22 mass killing of seven Rhoden family members and one's fiancee said placing the residences in storage is important for the investigation and for surviving relatives.

"The whole idea is to preserve them for evidence in the case, and also we want to make sure we are preserving them for the family members," Attorney General Mike DeWine said. "There are pictures in there, there are other things that are very important to the family members."

The Pike County Sheriff's Office contracted out the movers, whose identity DeWine said he did not know. This was the latest step in what is on course to become one of the most time-consuming investigations in Ohio history.

"This is a little different. I've never seen it done before, but the nature of these homes is that we can do it. Because we can do, we are going to do it," DeWine said. "The whole idea is so that we all can know they are secure and don't have to worry about that and so the sheriff doesn't have to have people out there all the time. So we just felt it was better to have them inside." Another mobile home is anticipated to join the others within "a few days," DeWine said.

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