Evidence Rooms

Evidently, the NOPD is having trouble in their evidence rooms. Some $200K is missing. And Riley didn't know that he had to account for the money. Yeah, right!

NEW ORLEANS -- New Orleans police officials apparently knew more than $200,000 was missing from the department's evidence and property room but failed to notify the proper authorities in writing, according to a state audit released Monday.

New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren Riley didn't know a state law required his department to provide the Louisiana legislative auditor and the city's district attorney with a written notice of any missing public funds, Legislative Auditor Steve Theriot wrote in a letter to city officials.

Anybody who's been a cop for any length of time knows what a monumental headache it is to properly secure evidence. Riley's been a cop for a while. If he didn't know how to take care of evidence then he should have asked for help. There are experts everywhere and a request for assistance would not have gone unanswered.

One old cop once told me that an evidence room will get you fired quicker than just about anything else in law enforcement. My experience reinforces the homily. The proper evidence custodian is one part accountant and one part son-of-a-bitch.

I hate to tell Riley this, but if he's missing money from his evidence rooms, he's missing drugs, too. He really needs to get in there and get a good inventory, audit it against police reports and put someone in charge who reports only to the Chief.