Evidence Kiosks help to improve Evidence Management

LEID Products to share groundbreaking system at the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Conference

How many times have Law and Order, NCIS, Dexter or some other crime drama aired episodes where evidence has “gone missing”? Most likely, it’s been too many times to count. Watching these shows and seeing racks of cardboard boxes in an un-monitored storage room leaves the average citizen wondering; is that how things are handled at my police station? The answer is, not anymore and things are improving all the time.

Property and evidence control and tracking causes enormous concerns in law enforcement. The process for tracking evidence has typically consisted of manually filling out property forms, which may lead to errors and inconsistent chain of custody records.

One company helping to improve this process is LEID Products. In 2011 they introduced the Biometric Access Control Systems (BACS) Evidence Management System. This stainless steel, wall-mounted, computerized kiosk houses a biometric ID reader for access verification and touch screen user navigation.

LEID Products chose Advanced Kiosks to build their BACS Systems because of the durability, ruggedness and quality of its state-of-the–art kiosks which meets the high standards required for BACS Systems.

The ID Station is also interfaced to LEID’s Electronic Evidence Lockers providing the secure temporary storage of evidence going into and out of police department property rooms. The system includes complete Chain of Custody custom software to track, monitor and report all evidence transfers.

Additional layers of security can be added with options including: hand geometry scanner, ID card reader, RFID evidence reader, and evidence barcode reader. With this system in place, officers can drop off and pick up evidence for trials without having to track down the evidence officer for court. This saves both time and resources.

LEID Products will showcase its groundbreaking BACS Evidence Management System at the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc., (CALEA®) Conference, November 14 – 17 in Jacksonville, Florida. Over 500 representatives from public safety agencies throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Barbados are expected to be present at the CALEA Conference held at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville-Riverfront.

CALEA was created in 1979 as a credentialing authority through the joint efforts of law enforcement’s major executive associations. CALEA’s goals are to; Strengthen crime prevention and control capabilities; Formalize essential management procedures; Establish fair and nondiscriminatory personnel practices; Improve service delivery; Solidify interagency cooperation and coordination; and Increase community and staff confidence in the agency

One police department that no longer uses a manual process for evidence tracking is the North Andover Police.

“The North Andover Police Department is very happy with how easy the BACS Evidence System is to use,” said Chief of Police, Paul J. Gallagher.

“All of our officers agree that the system makes their jobs easier. Dropping off evidence is a much faster process than ever before, and chain of custody has been significantly improved.”

Evidence tracking is ensured through the BACS system and officers are no longer wasting time tracking down detectives in order to access the evidence room. Beyond tighter chain of custody and time savings, the department now has top of the line reporting features for administrators.

About LEID Products: Law Enforcement Intelligent Devices (LEID), LLC is the leader in electronic locker and cabinet storage with biometric asset protection and control. Originally founded to assist police departments in securing guns, weapons, radios, etc. through an electronic tracking and fingerprinting system, LEID products are also utilized to track books within a library system, medical supplies, laptops and even business documents to selected personnel. Their Biometric Access Control Systems (BACS™) streamlines operations and provides full accountability for critical business assets.

For more information and demonstrations of our products, visit www.leidproducts.com.