ERIE POLICE TIGHTEN RULES ON EVIDENCE

An Erie police lieutenant betrayed a trust when he was accused of
taking 12 grams of cocaine from the room that temporarily houses
evidence at the police station.

But Robert J. Liebel's suspected theft has also created reforms, Erie
Police Chief Steve Franklin said Tuesday.

A reduction of keys to the room and new tamper-resistant evidence
bags are among the sweeping changes Erie police have made in how
officers handle evidence, Franklin and Mayor Joe Sinnott announced Tuesday.

The changes were a direct result of Liebel's Feb. 10 arrest, they said.

"We've stepped it up," Franklin said at a news conference. "We have a
whole lot more accountability."

The Bureau of Police consulted with the State Attorney General's
Office, the Erie County District Attorney's Office, and the
Pennsylvania State Police crime lab in Erie before introducing the
stricter evidence-handling procedures, Franklin said.

Most of the changes affect how evidence is handled in the
temporary-storage locker, the room from which Liebel is accused of
taking the cocaine.

The locker is a 4-by-5-foot room with shelves and a refrigerator.

The room, which police once used as a cell to hold drunks, is now
where police store evidence on nights and weekends, when the regular
property room is closed.

The changes to the evidence-handling procedures are:

A reduction of the number of officers that hold keys to the
temporary-storage locker.

Before Liebel's arrest, at least 14 officers with a rank of sergeant
and higher held keys to the temporary storage locker.

Three people now will have access to keys to the temporary storage
locker at any one time, Franklin said. They include the officer in
charge of the shift, as well as Sgt. Tom Falconer and Inspector Jim DeDionisio.

Falconer is in charge of the property room and clears the temporary
storage locker when he reports to work each day. His job is to
catalog and store the evidence in the regular property room.

DeDionisio, who is in charge of internal affairs investigations, will
use the key to conduct random checks of the storage locker to make
sure the new protocol is followed, Franklin said.

He said all three keys will always remain inside the police station.

The installation of a lockbox inside the temporary storage locker.
All drugs and money are now put in the lockbox, which has an opening
similar to a post office box.

Once the drugs or money are inside, the evidence cannot be retrieved
except by key. There is only one key to the lockbox, Franklin said.
That key is in Falconer's possession, and it also will not leave the
police station, Franklin said.

A requirement that both the officer who seized the evidence and the
officer in charge be present when evidence is locked in the
temporary-storage room. Previously, the officer in charge -- the
post Liebel was working when he was arrested -- took the evidence to
the locker him-or herself.

The storage of evidence in clear plastic bags that are also
heat-sealed. The bags are then wrapped with evidence tape signed and
dated by the officer who prepared the evidence. Before Liebel's
arrest, evidence was stored in paper bags that were stapled shut.

"If someone tampers with this, you're immediately going to know,"
Franklin said.

Improvements to video surveillance in the property room and
throughout the police station. Police are leaving in place the camera
that investigators installed during the sting operation in which
police said Liebel was caught taking the cocaine, Franklin said.

Other cameras have also been installed. He would not say how many or where.

The new system "takes away the variables," Sinnott said. "We wanted
to make sure breakdowns don't happen again."

Liebel, 46, an Erie police officer for 22 years, faces charges of
tampering with evidence, obstructing the administration of law,
theft, receiving stolen property and drug possession. Police said
Liebel told investigators the cocaine was for his personal use.

He is out on bond and in a drug rehabilitation facility in Ohio. His
preliminary hearing is March 12.

"This was a person who betrayed the trust -- according to the
allegations against him -- that compromised the system," Franklin said.

Franklin said the new system tightens controls in how evidence is
handled, but he said here is still a certain amount of trust needed.

Franklin said he must place confidence in his officers to bring
seized drugs, money and other evidence back to the police station to
be inventoried.

"You have to trust," Franklin said. "We have 166 officers who are
still holding their heads up high. They can be trusted, and I stand by them."