By Tanya Eiserer
The Dallas Morning News
DALLAS, Tex. — Authorities are trying to determine whether guns and other evidence may have been stolen from the Dallas Police Department’s property room.
Police haven’t been able to find some evidence, while other items that were supposed to have been destroyed still exist.
“We don’t know if it’s computer errors, human errors or theft,” said Assistant Chief Ron Waldrop. “The only thing we can do is a full inventory.”
Police have begun an extensive audit. And since police discovered the problem last week, a supervisor in charge of drugs and guns in the property room has decided to retire.
At least one detective says evidence for several of his cases could not be found and the cases fell apart. Ballistic evidence in an unsolved homicide investigation also has gone missing, according to an employee close to the situation.
Both asked that their names not be used because they feared retaliation.
The department hasn’t released exact details of what can’t be found. Officials say their audit is only just beginning, and they believe many of the difficulties center on a problem-plagued computerized inventory management system.
A retired police commander who oversaw the property room also said that too few people are trying to operate a facility that stores more than a million pieces of property.
“You’ve got stuff coming in 24 hours a day, and you’ve got to get rid of that old stuff,” said retired police Lt. Roseanna Renaud, a former commander of the unit, who retired last fall.
The overcrowded property room is a 24-hour operation with about 44 staff members. It contains some 1.2 million pieces of property and thousands of weapons.
The facility has been a sore spot for the department for years.
In 1999, $13,500 was stolen from the Police Department’s property room. A former civilian property room employee was suspected in the theft but authorities couldn’t prove it.
More than two years ago, The Dallas Morning News reported that the property room’s drug vault was overflowing with millions of dollars in drug evidence because police had not destroyed confiscated drugs for several years.
Last summer, The News reported that constant problems with a leaky roof had damaged and destroyed some evidence. The city has since installed a new roof.
Police say they desperately need a new facility, but city officials rejected a proposal to provide funds for a new one in the latest bond issue.
‘Unreliable, faulty’
Memos previously obtained through open-records laws clearly illustrate that police officials have long been aware of ongoing problems with the inventory system, called the Property Room Inventory Management System.
“The PRIMS system is unreliable and faulty,” Deputy Chief Nancy Kirkpatrick wrote to Police Chief David Kunkle in December 2004. “The duplicate and error ridden entries makes manual review and close scrutiny part of the daily management review of property.”
Chief Kirkpatrick also wrote that the system is “riddled with continuing programming failures and due to this, it may take years to correct our records to accurately reflect the contents of the Property Unit.”
Ms. Renaud said the system would frequently show what she termed “ghost items” -- property that the system showed to have been destroyed, but it was actually still in the building.
She also said occasionally she would encounter situations in which property wasn’t where it was supposed to be.
“We’d drop everything we were doing and we’d find it,” Ms. Renaud said. “We never had a situation that I can recall where we had something that we couldn’t find.”
A city auditor’s report released in June found problems with the property room following procedures related to weapons slated for destruction. Chief Waldrop also said that officials found some guns that had been slated for destruction as far back as 1991 were still at the facility.
The employee close to the situation says the problems are systemic.
“I guarantee you that there have been guns ground up that should not have been,” the employee said.
Accreditation effort
Officials say the more recent issues with the property room’s ability to account for property came to light because the department is trying to become accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. CALEA requires that agencies meet rigorous accreditation standards.
Lt. Eric Webb, commander of the property room, said extra help is being brought in to help with the inventory. He said he does not know how long it will take.
“We’re trying to get to the bottom of it,” he said. “It’s like a mystery and we’re trying to solve it as soon as we can.”
Chief Kunkle said he remained hopeful that the unaccounted for property will be located.
“It’s a place where there is significant risk,” Chief Kunkle said. “It’s comparable with [the risks associated] with narcotics and informants.”
Sgt. Judy Katz, who oversaw the department’s gun and drug evidence, suddenly submitted her letter of retirement on Friday. Her last day is Tuesday.
She declined to comment, but Ms. Renaud praised Sgt. Katz’s work. “She will go far and beyond to make sure something is done right,” Ms. Renaud said.
Copyright 2007 The Dallas Morning News