Policy Text
Page 1 of 5 16/13 (REV 3/07)
Property Booking Procedures
The purpose of this General Order i s to describe the procedures for booking property.
I. General
A. Property Definition This Order will apply to all property, legal or contraband, t aken into
departmental custody and/or cont rol with the ex ception of mot orized
vehicles, vessels or aircraft requiring State or Federal regi stration.
B. Property Receipt/Report or Au tomated Field Reporting System (AFR)
1. A report number is required w hen any property is booked. Num bers
shall be recorded on the Property Receipt/Report or entered int o
AFR prior to placing the property into a property locker or boo king it
into the Property Warehouse.
2. The Property Receipt/Report or AFR entry will contain a deta iled
description of each item being booked, including any serial num ber
or descriptive markings, how/wher e it was obtained, and if know n,
the property owner and any contact information.
C. Types of Property Booked
1. Recovered Stolen - Property k nown by the officer(s) to be st olen,
owner identified, and/or ver ified through documentation.
2. Evidence -Property of evidentiary value in a case for which an
arrest or crime report has been made (A Crime Report is requir ed.).
3. Search Warrant Evidence - Pr operty of evidentiary value take n by a
search warrant in a case in wh ich an arrest or crime report has
been made. Officers are to submi t a signed copy of the Search
Warrant Return with the property o r directly to the Property Bu reau.
4. Contraband - An item that is illegal to own or possess that will not
be used as evidence (No Crim e Report is required.).
Page 2 of 5 16/13 (REV 3/07) 5. Safekeeping - Proper ty accepted/taken by an officer into tem porary
custody for a known owner. Saf ekeeping property is not of
evidentiary value (A Crime Report is optional.).
6. Found Property - Property that has been found by a citizen o r an
officer, which is not of evident iary value (No Crime Report is
required.).
D. Booking for destruction
1. Officers shall not dispose of, or destroy confiscated proper ty or
evidence by any method other than booking property using a
Property Receipt/Repor t or proper AFR entry.
2. All contraband, which will no t be used as evidence, shall be
booked for destruction. 3. Officers must write “Book for Destruction” and a brief explanation
on the Property Receipt/Report.
II. Property Packaging
A. General property
1. Place in a size appropriate envelope, bag or other container and
place the proper bar code on this envelope, bag or container.
Place the bar code on the cont ainer and not on the property.
2. Large individual items which w ill not fit into containers mu st be
tagged with a property tag. Prope rty tags should be tied with a
string to each individual item . The property tag shall include the
report number, the corresponding item number, and the bar code.
3. Each container must have a not ation as to the report number and
the appropriate item number(s) co rresponding with the Property
Receipt/Report or AFR entry.
4. If it is necessary to use mor e than one container for items on a
Property Receipt/Report or AFR packing list, attach a photocopy of
the form or a separate AFR pa cking list to each container.
5. Small paper bags, odd sized envelopes, plastic bags, etc. ar e not to
be used to book property, unless containerized within a large p aper
bag. Otherwise, these items should be placed inside one of the
standard size bags located in the evidence room.
6. Do not overfill containers wit h too many items or too much w eight.
Page 3 of 5 16/13 (REV 3/07) 7. Turn off pagers and cellular phones or remove their batterie s.
8. Separate items that require ID processing or analysis from t he rest
of the property and package it i n a separate container. Write the
type of ID processing requested (i.e. latents, DNA, etc.) or sp ecial
handling requirements (i.e. freeze , fragile, etc.) on the Prope rty
Report/Receipt or AFR Packing List and on the container.
9. Items requiring ID processing or analysis are to be bagged o r
tagged correctly and placed in a separate locker. Adequate
instructions pertaining to the type of processing or analysis
requested should be included on the property report or AFR entr y.
Protective measures, such as bagging or boxing, must be used
when the nature of the evidence requires that it be undisturbed
prior to analysis.
B. Property envelopes , bags, and containers
1. The following sizes of env elopes and bags should be used wh en
booking property. These envelopes and bags are available in ea ch
Division’s Evidence Room.
a. Envelopes: 6”x9” and 9”x12” b. Bags: 7”x12”x17” and 12”x18”x33”
2. Proper marking of booking cont ainers is of utmost importance