Halifax’s police chief provided reporters an update on the progress of the force’s drug exhibit audit Monday, saying he expects to complete it by the end of “this calendar year.”
Blais said there’s still some “significant” things to discover, with police still needing to determine what happened to some large quantities of drugs, but he said he’s satisfied the work itself will be done.
“Thus far there’s nothing that’s been found that there’s been any nefarious activity that’s been done or something’s been taken without the approval of the chain of command,” Blais said, following a meeting of the Board of Police Commissioners.
In June 2016, a drug exhibit audit originally reported 74 exhibits were missing from Halifax Regional Police evidence.
READ MORE: Halifax police hope to have drug exhibit audit done next spring
Two exhibits were located shortly after making the audit public, bringing the total of missing exhibits to 72. The exhibits include cash, drugs, drug paraphernalia, as well as miscellaneous non-drug items like paper receipts.
An internal audit was completed and 34 of the missing 72 exhibits were found, but 38 were still unaccounted for. On Monday, Blais said 49 have now been found.
During February’s meeting of the Board, Blais agreed to keep the board updated about the audit’s progress each month.
He said most of the cash has been accounted for — as of March 17, a total of C$25,010.97 and US$35.00 still needed to be reconciled — and said they’re still finding a “bit more cash” that wasn’t in the records management system. As of Aug. 15, a report that went before the board showed there was now C$6,683.41 still to be reconciled and US$20 USD.
If money or drugs are still missing at the end of the process, Blais said they’d have to make a “determination” at that point to decide what to do next.
In the report, it details that the review team consists of a sergeant and two police members on modified duties. One officer was recently cleared and returned to her unit.
WATCH: Halifax police still have cash, drug exhibits unaccounted for: report
The report on Monday shows in addition to various cash found and that which still needed to be reconciled, various large drug items have been located. This includes six items of marijuana plants totalling 741 plants, 13 items of marijuana totalling 2.96 kilograms, 17 exhibits totalling 757 pills, 12 items of cocaine totalling 0.48 kilograms and 1 exhibit of 50 steroid pills.
Going forward, Blais said an improved system is in place for yearly audits, where at the end of the year “everything is topped up” and they’ll be able to determine what is and isn’t there.
Asked what police have learned from the current audit, Blais said it’s to “not take for granted what is there.”
“It’s a matter of being as vigilant as possible, we’re fortunate that we have a robust — it’s going to be more robust in years to come — internal auditing system and it’s just a matter of determining what’s the best practices that are out there and getting the best practices that we have for Halifax Regional Police,” he said.
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An updated projected timeline that went before the board Monday shows over the final months of this year, the team will complete various tasks including research on large drug items and cash, confirming exhibits currently housed in Supreme Court, and a complete inventory and comparison of results with that of the original inventory.
The expected completion date is Dec. 31, 2017.
—With files from Natasha Pace and Steve Silva
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