Stuff Experts converge on Public Safety storage problem.

Today all types of organizations are going “paperless”, and freedom from paper can be a powerful thing. But then there’s all of that other stuff – the stuff that is essential to our day in and day out tasks. Are organizations going “stuffless” too? That doesn’t appear to be the case. Consider the stuff that Public Safety and Law Enforcement agencies have to handle. Uniforms, gear, long-arms, hand guns, supplies, evidence, property, and yes even paper files are all critical to their sworn duty to protect and serve.

In Florida, Martin County Sheriff’s Office and Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office are two agencies that can attest to the problems that stuff creates. Due to population growth and extended responsibilities, they both have faced unique space and storage related challenges. As the Stuff Experts, we set out to do our own detective work into these issues. By investigating the needs of each agency, we were able to identify a combination of several products that fit the description of the solutions needed. Installing high-density mobile shelving, static shelving, bi-files, weapons racks, pistol racks, rollok doors, garment rods, evidence lockers, work benches and drawer systems were a part of the necessary actions taken. Both agencies were able to consolidate their storage needs, which allowed them to store more in a given space (such as the warehouse), or use the saved space for other purposes (such as the warrants area).  But there was more than just significant space savings. For example, Palm Beach County was able to secure everything in their armory by using rollok doors, while Martin County helped solidify the chain of custody of their evidence with pass-through evidence lockers. Purchasing departments and records areas benefitted, too.

As is often the case, stuff can be difficult to apprehend. For these two agencies, the case of the stuff storage problem was solved by deploying a multiple product approach. The need for building expansion was pushed back for years by using high-density storage. Productivity increased by having stuff conveniently stored and easy to find. No, they didn’t become “stuffless”, but their storage rooms are now roomier, their space is put to better use and the stuff they do have is stowed away, organized and well protected.




Six Tips for Planning Evidence Room Storage.

When it comes to storing evidence, there is a lot of stuff to plan for - weapons, stolen property, narcotics, money, biological evidence, and more. The value of this evidence diminishes if it is not properly stored and tracked. 

Here are six tips for planning Evidence Room storage:
  1. Conduct site visits to other police agencies, and learn from their experiences - see what others with similar situations are doing and ask how it’s working for them. A lot can be learned from the successes and failures of others.
  2. Place evidence lockers so they can be conveniently accessed from within the Report Writing Room - typically evidence is tagged and packaged in a Report Writing Room, so it is beneficial for the evidence lockers to be in there, too.
  3. Build “pass through” lockers into the common wall between the Report Writing Room and the Property Room - this helps protect the chain of custody of the evidence.
  4. Avoid standard lockers that have simple “gravity” locks - these types of lockers can be breached, making it easier for the evidence to be tampered with.
  5. Vary the size of openings within the evidence lockers - evidence, like most stuff, comes in all shapes and sizes so it is important to have lockers with a variety of compartment sizes.
  6. Specify a woven wire gate on the property room side of the locker - this improves visibility to see if anything is in the lockers.
This information is based on the article, "Evidence Depository Lockers" by Officer Steve Berdrow of the Burbank Police Department. The article can be found in "The Evidence Log", a quarterly publication of the IAPE. Jason Konz, from Spacesaver, originally blogged about this topic on their Storage Solved blog, you can read his full post here.

For more information on Evidence Storage check out Spacesaver's Public Safety Storage Solutions site.