POLICE DRUG KIT IS MISSING

Coke, Heroin, Ecstasy Samples May Have Been Stolen; Probe Underway

A drug-awareness kit filled with samples of cocaine, heroin and other
illicit substances has been missing since early May from a storage cabinet
at the Victoria Police Department.

The kit is one of a pair the department put together two years ago to use
at prevention seminars, workshops and other gatherings. The kits contains
samples of an array of drugs seized from street-level users and
traffickers, Insp. Grant Smith said at a news conference Tuesday.

The approximate street value of the drugs in each kit is $1,500 to $2,000.

"There is no indication whatsoever of any misconduct by any employee of the
Victoria Police Department," Smith said.

He said he would like to believe the kit has been mislaid and will be
found, but conceded there is a possibility it has been stolen.

"We've done everything that we can to locate (it). I'm hoping that the kit
has just been misplaced, or that the (police department) member that
possibly borrowed it has just, for whatever reason, not returned it.

"My biggest fear is that the drugs are located by somebody other than the
police."

The kit was last seen in the first week of May and Smith began his
investigation soon after.

The drug kits were kept in a secure cabinet in the Targeted Policing
Division on the police building's main floor, and were directly accessible
to only one officer. The cabinet was usually locked, he said.

The fact that one of the kits is missing indicates "a breakdown in our
policy and our procedures," Smith said.

The kits did not have to be formally signed out.

"We were using the honour system. Anybody requiring the kits would go to
the constable in charge of the program. That constable would assign the kit
to them."

He said both the Victoria Police Board and the Office of the Police
Complaint Commissioner have been told, and he turned over the matter to the
detective office after the kit did not turn up through his own review.

The remaining kit will not be used until a new policy is firmly in place,
Smith said.

A news conference was called about the missing drug kit "to report this
circumstance in as transparent and straightforward a manner as possible."