AUDIT ASSAILS LAPD'S ACCOUNTING FOR SEIZED VALUABLES

Police: Although conceding that gains have been made since the last survey
in 1992, report says storage problems raise temptation of theft and abuse.

The Los Angeles Police Department is "sloppy" when it comes to storing and
accounting for guns, drugs, jewelry, electronic equipment and other property
seized by police, the city's controller said Wednesday.

A 35-page audit released by Controller Rick Tuttle found that the LAPD's
supervision of property has internal weaknesses that jeopardize the success
of criminal prosecutions and create easy opportunities for abuse and theft.

Each year, the LAPD's property division processes about 250,000 pieces of
property, ranging from weapons, cash and guns to blood- and semen-stained
clothing. Officials said the LAPD's 18 police stations received, on an
annual basis, about 13,000 guns, $2 billion worth of drugs and as much as $5
million in currency.

Auditors discovered that some of those items were either misplaced or
missing with no explanations. Other property, such as drugs, were not always
kept in the most secure locations.

In one case, some "high-value drugs" and cash were stored next to employees'
snack foods in a vault.

"They don't have good inventory control," Tuttle said. "They have a lot of
improvement to do here."

While acknowledging that improvements can be made, LAPD officials bristled
at the accusation that the department is careless in handling and securing
property.

"It's absolutely untrue," said William R. Moran, head of the LAPD's fiscal
and support bureau. "The volume of evidence we process is staggering. . . .
This is a system that deserves commendation instead of being attacked."

The LAPD's processing and safeguarding of evidence was one of the dominant
issues raised by defense attorneys during the murder trial of O.J. Simpson.
The attorneys accused the department of shoddy procedures.

According to the auditors' report, one troubling lapse in oversight occurs
when the property no longer needs to be stored by the LAPD and is auctioned
or junked. Auditors said the department does not properly track exactly
which items are sent to, or sold at, auctions. In a small sampling of 27
items listed for disposal, auditors found two items--a radar detector and a
car stereo--missing. The department also does not adequately track property
that eventually is acquired for department purposes, such as video cameras.

Another problem, the auditors said, is at the department's armory. According
to the controller's report, the LAPD does not keep backup records for
tracking firearms in its possession. Moreover, no records are kept on the
inventory of parts for firearms.

Such procedural shortcomings may lead "to waste, misuse or theft of
property," the report states.

In addition to developing better procedures for monitoring evidence and
property, the auditors recommended that the LAPD install security cameras in
areas where the items are stored, rotate officers who work in the property
rooms and implement a "bar coding" system similar to what supermarkets use
to scan prices on groceries.

The LAPD, Moran said, already is working on implementing the bar-coding
procedures that he expects to be in use by summer. He said he will review
the recommendations in the report and "figure out what we can do with the
facilities and resources that we have."

Some of the problems in tracking property, Moran said, are the result of
automating the manual records six years ago. "It's a data conversion
problem, basically," he said, adding that he expects those problems to be
resolved as the older property is discarded.

Moran said that the department has made remarkable improvement in its
handling of property compared to a decade ago when nothing was computerized
and property tags were known to come off items, making them difficult to ide
ntify. He added that he knew of no criminal cases that had to be dismissed
because of missing evidence.

"We're light-years ahead of where we were," Moran said. "A lot of other
agencies would love to have an automated system like we do."

Tuttle and his auditors acknowledge that the LAPD has made significant
improvements since their last audit in 1992.

Auditors said the sheer volume of evidence also has caused some storage
concerns. At the Scientific Investigation Division, for example, employees
maintained a cache of firearms that "is too large for its current storage
space."

Timothy B. Lynch, administrative deputy at the controller's office, said
auditors did not try to undercover any criminal activity at the property
room, but rather identify weaknesses in the department's policies and
procedures in processing the property.

He said auditors found loopholes in the department's handling of property
that make the temptation of criminal activity too great.

"The whole system needs to be tightened up," Lynch said.

Checked-by: "Rolf Ernst"