At the last city council meeting on April 26th, Police Chief Roberts discussed how the department continues to improve transparency in their methods of recording evidence and property. The police department received its regular quarterly audit of evidence and property this past week. 

 

During the audit, 5 cases from records are selected at random for review. Evidence is checked by the auditor to make sure it is in the location where it is described to be. In the 5 cases, all items were accounted for. The auditor did note; however, that one piece of evidence was mislabeled in the records, but it was found to be in the correct location. 

 

Chief Roberts went on to explain that evidence is a large liability to any department because individuals cannot own items like drugs or child pornography. Accountability is of upmost importance, therefore, with evidence like drugs and child pornography. Cases can be thrown out of court because of poor accountability in records. Artesia has been recognized by the State of New Mexico for its outstanding evidence process.