Halifax Regional Police (HRP) say they’re working to address “gaps” outlined in a recent audit and locate thousands of exhibits that have been “misplaced” by the force.
READ MORE: Audit finds drug, money evidence missing from Halifax police storage
In June 2016, a drug exhibit audit originally reported 74 exhibits missing from HRP evidence. Two of the exhibits were located shortly after the audit was made public, bringing the total of missing exhibits to 72.
The exhibits in question include cash, drugs, drug paraphernalia, as well as miscellaneous non-drug items like paper receipts and computer disks.
Following a review of the internal audit, 34 of the 72 exhibits were located, however 38 are still unaccounted for.
A new report, which was presented to the Halifax Board of Police Commissioners Monday afternoon, says a review team believes 32 of the 38 missing exhibits (including drug and drug paraphernalia) were destroyed.
The other six missing exhibits – cash amounts totaling $4,956.00 – are believed to have been deposited into the HRP’s special enforcement section bank account.
The exhibits that are believed to have been destroyed are as follows:
According to the report, the review team found “no evidence to suggest exhibits were misappropriated,” however it goes on to say that the “conclusion is not definitive.”
“We’re very confident that our officers did not do anything untoward,” said Halifax Regional Police Chief Jean-Michel Blais.
“What we are looking at and what we have determined is that there are some gaps in our process, in our policy, in the way that we’ve done things.”
The report says a number of gaps were identified during the review process and that “significant efforts” have been made to address policy, procedure, training, quality assurance and proper documentation.
Twenty-three of 34 recommendations in last summer’s audit have now been complete, and the police department says they’re still working on the remaining 11 recommendations.
Taking a closer look
Following that audit, HRP decided to take a closer look at their entire drug exhibit inventory.
Between September 2016 and February 2017 the review team physically handled 9,792 exhibits in their possession and determined that approximately 3,000 drug-related exhibits were outstanding or misplaced. Of those exhibits, 228 were cash items in a variety of currencies, totalling approximately $100,000.
Police say since the inventory was completed earlier this month, the focus of the review team has been to locate the cash exhibits.
“They’ve since found $73,000 and there’s 26,000 left to be found,” Blais said.
“My full expectation is that every day that goes by, there are more exhibits, not just money, that are being reconciled and we’re able to determine exactly where they are, where they’ve been going.”
At this time, Blais cannot say how many of the 3,000 exhibits remain “outstanding” or misplaced.
Going forward
Police say insufficient training, a lack of awareness of record keeping systems, shortcuts and lack of documentation have created systemic issues that date back years. Some of the inventory predates the current records management system or was prior to the integration of police forces in 2003.
“The one person that’s responsible for this is me, Jean-Michel Blais. The buck stops with me there’s no doubt,” Blais said.
“When it comes down to the issues, it’s not just the officers that are there today, most likely it’s not them. It’s the officers that were there in the past, it’s the procedures that were there in the past.”
Going forward, police say they will focus on ensuring “procedures are strictly adhered to by all officers.” There will also be an annual inventory of drug-related exhibits to “further ensure officers are continuously adhering to the enhanced measures.”
Police have also agreed to update the Halifax Board of Police Commissioners on a monthly basis going forward.
“What I had hoped for though was a little bit more of certainty of when we were going to be finished this audit and go forward in the future,” said Steve Craig, municipal councillor and commissioner on the board.
“One thing that’s for sure is that obtaining evidence, the security of that evidence, ongoing security and final disposition of that evidence I think is quite important.”
You can read the full review into the Halifax Regional Police audit here.
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