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Ontario Police Lt. Jason Cooper opens a door to an empty evidence locker that has been recently installed in the evidence room, which is in an annex near Ontario City Hall. The new lockers have push buttons which are pushed after evidence is put inside by an officer. After that, they can only be opened from the other side, which is in a secure area which is only accessible by the evidence technician. Hanging down in a red bag is an emergency Narcan kit. The opioid overdose reversal medication hasn’t had to be used in their evidence room before according to Cooper, but it is there as a quickly accessible safety measure. Furthermore, all officers carry the medication with them now, according to Cooper.
These small lockers used to be where evidence was stored. To the left of the lockers are assorted materials used to label and store.
Ontario Police Lt. Jason Cooper opens a door to an empty evidence locker that has been recently installed in the evidence room, which is in an annex near Ontario City Hall. The new lockers have push buttons which are pushed after evidence is put inside by an officer. After that, they can only be opened from the other side, which is in a secure area which is only accessible by the evidence technician. Hanging down in a red bag is an emergency Narcan kit. The opioid overdose reversal medication hasn’t had to be used in their evidence room before according to Cooper, but it is there as a quickly accessible safety measure. Furthermore, all officers carry the medication with them now, according to Cooper.
These small lockers used to be where evidence was stored. To the left of the lockers are assorted materials used to label and store.
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ONTARIO — Bringing Ontario Police Department’s room up-to-date with best industry practices has been an undertaking that stretches back more than a year. And, even though tens of thousands of items could take a couple of years to purge, the final security update is expected to be in place in the near future. The new tracking software was said to be about a month out during a tour of the new space on Aug. 31.
“Think of it as puzzle pieces of improvement,” said Lt. Jason Cooper, who has been on special assignment to get the evidence room organized since interim chief Steve Bartol’s last day in mid-May.
Cooper and Chief Michael Iwai walked through the major changes which have happened in the intake room.
The new system “creates a chain of custody,” Cooper explained. He showed how after evidence is properly bagged, boxed or tagged, it gets put into a locker. Once it’s in there, a button is pushed by the officer. After that, the only way to open that locker is on the other side of the intake cage where the evidence is stored.
“This allows the evidence tech or Cooper to ensure that the documentation correctly matches the evidence,” Iwai said. “It’s a stop gap.”
From there, Cooper — and eventually a full-time evidence technician, which has been approved for the 2022-23 budget cycle — will input the items into the new software system. As that is not yet in place, Cooper is currently doing that manually.
“Manual intake is more arduous for Lt. Cooper,” Iwai explained. “To get that done, he has to take all of it over to the Police Department, enter it into the Justice report management system and bring it back and store it.”
He will verify that items are properly packaged and labeled, as well as verify evidence documentation associated with the report management system.
“One challenge that the new system helped us with was more variety of size,” Cooper explained.
He pointed out how the older lockers that stored evidence in the intake area were mostly all the same small size, with the exception of a couple taller ones. Also, because they are like gym lockers, it made it easier to misplace a key. With the new system, Cooper said, officers don’t have to worry about a code or key.
And sometimes, items in the evidence room might actually be property held for safekeeping that aren’t accepted at the Malheur County Jail. Cooper said this could be something bulky, such as a large backpack.
The new intake lockers also have a refrigerated unit with several differently sized lockers, which enables them to safely store blood and urine samples.
New shelving components from Space Savers, which also include a variety of sizes, have been installed where evidence is stored after it leaves intake. Those shelving components are floor-to-ceiling shelves. They are on a rail-like tracking system under the floor that enables them to be easily moved, as well as expanded or collapsed to help maximize space.
When evidence comes in, everything gets packaged and labeled. Firearms get secured with cables as part of a “render safe procedure,” Cooper explained. Items that are too bulky to fit into a box or a bag, such as a chainsaw, will get a manilla tag, instead.
When it comes to purging items, the District Attorney is the only one who can OK the release of items after cases have gone through adjudication, according to Iwai. From there, Ontario Police can then purge the items “in accordance with state law,” the chief said.
However, because of everyone doing so much with so little resources, thousands of items remain to be purged.
Part of their process to modernize the system at the Ontario Police Department’s evidence room is going through the report management system and looking for items that could be old enough to have gone through adjudication but were never purged. From there, they will initiate contact with the DA to start the process to be able to destroy that evidence.
Iwai in June told the Ontario City Council to let the investigation into missing evidence being conducted by Oregon State Police to play out. He further said, as they went through infrastructure upgrades, it could exceed funding earmarked for the department in the current fiscal year.
The evidence room previously had a half-time evidence technician, who has been on administrative leave since a criminal investigation into missing evidence began in 2021. In the first half of that year, $900 in cash was found to be missing, and a subsequent audit in July of 2021 turned up potentially more missing items.
An investigation being conducted by Oregon State Police was underway since August of 2021 and was recently turned over to Malheur County District Attorney’s Office. District Attorney David Goldthorpe in a phone interview on Friday said he did not file any charges; rather, he forwarded the investigation to the Oregon Department of Justice. The reason is that he has a personal conflict of interest with the suspect. Goldthorpe said over the years he has worked on several major cases with the suspect as well as attended public events together. Should DOJ decide to file charges, the Grand Jury will be conducted in Malheur County as it is a local case. However, Goldthorpe clarified that if charges are filed, staff from the DOJ will be the ones managing the case.
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