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The findings were discomforting for Halifax police: Thousands of exhibits – including marijuana, cocaine, opioids and cash – were missing.
But in an audit report released Monday, the force insisted there was no evidence to suggest the exhibits were misappropriated.
Instead, they said, it’s believed that evidence was destroyed, misplaced or mislabelled.
“That being said, we couldn’t physically account for some of these items. We believe they were destroyed, but we can’t conclusively say that,” said Supt. Jim Perrin after presenting the report to the city’s Board of Police Commissioners.
READ MORE: Halifax police chief says completion of drug exhibit audit expected by end of year
The audit was first prompted in 2015 after it was alleged that an officer had stolen from evidence lockers. A number of audits have taken place since then, with the latest covering all drug-related exhibits seized between 1992 and 2016.
Among the missing police exhibits were 293 sums of cash, 331 large drug exhibits and 2,628 smaller and non-drug exhibits, some of which were located during the detailed audit of its inventory.
Hundreds are still missing.
“We’re not happy with the results, but we’re confident that we’re going to be a better police department because of it,” said Perrin.
Perrin, who was in charge of the audit, said it’s believed the missing drugs were likely destroyed and that the missing cash had been deposited into a police bank account without record of which case it was connected to.
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“At no time through this process do we believe that anything was misappropriated by anybody,” said Perrin. “If we had come across that, we would have dealt with it, we would have taken that very seriously.”
He blamed a number of factors for the shortcomings over the 25-year period, including inadequate recording and tracking of exhibits, non-standardized training and a lack of adherence to procedures by officers, and exhibits that were destroyed without proper documentation, as mandated by Health Canada.
“I’m not going to make excuses for the decisions that people made to proceed with destruction without paperwork,” he said. “But certainly we’re going to have much more emphasis on that day-to-day quality assurance piece to make sure this doesn’t happen in the future.”
Steve Craig, a municipal councillor and member of the Board of Police Commissioners, noted during the meeting that the situation “has not been comfortable for anyone involved.”
“And guess what? It shouldn’t be comfortable,” he said.
“The public confidence and trust in police services is paramount, so we need to be able to take these tough challenges.”
WATCH: Halifax police audit reveals missing evidence
Police Chief Jean-Michel Blais assured the board that “the process that we have going forward is very tight, very robust.”
Perrin said a number of steps have been taken to strengthen the force’s processes, including an annual audit of drug exhibits, the creation of an enhanced electronic tracking system, and training for officers. An evidence custodian has also been hired.
Perrin noted that one court case was affected by the issues with the force’s drug exhibit inventory: The Crown was forced to withdraw one of multiple charges against an individual after police were unable to locate the drug sample associated with the charge.
Police said 38 cash exhibits (amounting to roughly $8,083), 263 large drug exhibits such as marijuana plants, and 2,488 small drug exhibits were still missing following the audit.
A previous audit on how the force handles drug exhibits in criminal matters made 34 recommendations to improve the practice, most of which have been completed or “completed in draft form,” the latest audit said.
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