Watson looks like an average house cat, but the newest member of the Moody Police Department has a special job. March 25, 2017 MOODY, Ala. - A rash of break-ins in a police department's evidence room had the department calling in a special investigator to rid it of the problem. Watson looks like an average house cat, but the newest member of the Mo...

The department also destroyed evidence that might have linked one of its sergeants to the cases because it wasn't identified as homicide evidence March 24, 2017 The Suffolk County Police Department destroyed evidence in two murders because of a paperwork error, an officer testified Wednesday at the trial of the man charged in both cases. The depart...

Sexual Assault Kit Initiative - SPREAD the WORD! Advocate to Eliminate the Evidence Room Backlog - May, 15th 2017 Help us spread the word about the rape kit backlog to your community. Tell your elected officials to prioritize rape kit reform. Urge your friends and family to learn, advocate for change and support our efforts to end th...

Enter Headline here May 18, 2017 Good news! For the third consecutive year, Congress has fully funded the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) grant program. In the FY17 spending bill signed into law earlier this month, Congress allocated $45 million for SAKI, keeping intact this much-needed funding for communities to test backlogged kits, investig...

A diligent sergeant in the property room of St. Paul Police Department reunited a family with the ashes of James Harris, which had been left abandoned at Oakland Cemetery in St. Paul May 5, 2016 James Harris was a family man; a father of nine, uncle and brother beloved by kin from Illinois to Arkansas to Minnesota. Now, more than seven years after ...

April 18, 2017 PEARL RIVER, LA (WVUE) - A missing man's vehicle found after a murder in the Milan neighborhood could hold evidence for New Orleans police detectives. New Orleans police found Gerald Oster Jr.'s SUV last Wednesday. It was found riddled with bullets after a shooting near the corner of Freret and Peniston. Oster went missing on March 1...

Local officials said there are many reasons a kit may not have been tested, the most common being that the victim did not cooperate or declined to move forward with the case. April 22, 2017 INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana State Police plan to conduct an audit of untested sexual assault kits that may have lingered for years in evidence collection rooms acros...

Standardizing the rape kits would reduce the chance of contamination and make for a faster and more efficient process, she said. Enter Article DATE HERE All rape kits are not created equal. There are multiple vendors. Some law enforcement agencies buy them off the shelf. Some of the larger departments have manufacturers customize them for thei...

Upon discovery of the ring, and the name engraved upon it, Jenny Metz, a PropertyRoom.com employee, notified her supervisor, who reached out to the Wichita Police Department. April 4, 2017 Recently, an employee at PropertyRoom.com, an online police auction website, was sorting through items received from the Wichita Police Department in Kansas to p...

An audit revealed that nearly 1,800 cases had missing evidence April 3, 2017 The Ingham County Sheriff's Office is now saying it's lost track of seven sexual-assault kits. The department announced Monday those seven kits are part of the 1,756 cases in which evidence was lost dating back to the year 2000.  Prosecutor Carol Siemon is not happy. ...

Walters, 37, of Madison, was sentenced to two years of probation. He pleaded guilty on Jan. 5. Enter Article DATE HERE MADISON, Wis. - A former lieutenant with the state Department of Veterans Affairs Police Department was sentenced Tuesday for possession of a controlled substance. David Walters, 37, of Madison, was sentenced to two years of p...

March 6, 2017 Putnam, the Simpsonville Police officer arrested Jan. 7, 2016, in connection with the November 2015 robbery of thousands of dollars as well as guns and drugs from the Simpsonville Police Department, had pleaded guilty before Shelby Circuit Judge Charles Hickman in January. Putnam made an open plea, which left the sentence up to the ju...

admitted to stealing money from evidence March 24, 2017 A former South Dakota Highway Patrol trooper who admitted to stealing money from evidence while on the job has been sentenced to five years in the state penitentiary. In addition, 48-year-old Brian William Biehl received a $10,000 fine.  Attorney General Marty Jackley announced the senten...

Analysts in Kentucky are now ranked as the lowest paid in the entire United States, and KSP Forensic Laboratory System Director Laura Sudkamp told Pure Politics she is the lowest paid director in the nation, "by a long shot." March 23, 2017 Editor's note: This is part two in a two-part series on Kentucky's attempts to clear the backlog of untested ...

Medical issues postpone trial date for retired Springfield police officer Kevin Burnham March 20, 2017 Springfield-Kevin Burnham, retired Springfield police officer, appears in Hampden County Superior Court where his case was continued until March.  Burnham is facing charges with stealing nearly $385,000 in cash from the police department's ev...

Drugs and cash missing from a police evidence room were taken by a police detective who has since passed away. March 2, 2017 UPPER DUBLIN, Pa. - Drugs and cash missing from a police evidence room were taken by a police detective who has since passed away. The Upper Dublin Police Department and Montgomery County District Attorney's office revealed T...

An audit later determined that approximately $70,000 was missing, according to Healey's office March 1, 2017 RAMINGHAM — A veteran police officer who supervised the department's evidence room admitted in 2015 to stealing money under his care, according to new records filed in court Wednesday. Former patrolman Alan Dubeshter allegedly told several c...

A Bronx man was charged with the 1999 rape and murder of a 56 - year-old woman who lived in his building — after new DNA evidence linked him to the brutal slaying, police sources said. Enter Article DATE HERE A Bronx man was charged with the 1999 rape and murder of a 56-year-old woman who lived in his building — after new DNA evidence lin...

The report found that the theft of $137,609 in cash and 1,096 pills went undetected because the department didn't establish proper security protocols and then didn't ensure compliance of the protocols that were established. Enter Article DATE HERE HOLLYWOOD, FLA. (WSVN) - The Broward Office of the Inspector General issued a report, Tuesday, de...

A high-ranking South Amboy cop stole cash seized in investigations from the evidence room, the county prosecutor says. February 23, 2017 SOUTH AMBOY, NJ - A South Amboy police detective has been charged with stealing money from the evidence room, the Middlesex County prosecutor announced Thursday morning. Detective Matthew Barcheski, 39, who lives ...

Sheriff says officers removed beer cans from undercover car after shooting February 16, 2017 JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Three veteran Jacksonville Sheriff's Office detectives were arrested Thursday, stripped of their police authority and placed on unpaid leave pending dismissal in connection with a fatal police-involved shooting last week. Sheriff Mike W...

The contraption was powerful enough to sling two bundles of weed — weighing a combined 47 pounds — into the United States from Mexico. February 15, 2017 Border Patrol agents in Arizona thwarted some drug smugglers and dismantled a drug catapult used to launch marijuana into the United States from Mexico. The catapult was attached to the top of a bo...

The disappearance of money, drugs and firearms from Newport's former police department remains a mystery after a lengthy law enforcement investigation ended this week. Enter Article DATE HERE The disappearance of money, drugs and firearms from Newport's former police department remains a mystery after a lengthy law enforcement investigation en...

According to the Lonoke County Detention Center, Arkansas State Police (ASP) arrested Branden Hampton, 36, of Ward Wednesday on charges of theft and felony tampering with a public record. February 9, 2017 According to the Lonoke County Detention Center, Arkansas State Police (ASP) arrested Branden Hampton, 36, of Ward Wednesday on charges of theft ...

Wisconsin received the two largest grants in the country to locate and address untested kits in hospitals and law enforcement agencies across the state, Schimel said. The DOJ announced the receipt of $4 million in grants in September 2015 to inventory the untested kits. January 31, 2017 In an attempt to curb the backlog of an estimated 6,000 u...

The province's police watchdog has alleged that the officer stole the cocaine, passed it to another person to sell and then received "substantial proceeds" from the sale. February 3, 2017 HALIFAX—Additional charges have been laid against a Nova Scotia Mountie accused of drug trafficking after police investigated the theft of 10 kilograms of cocaine...

The husband and wife are accused of stealing at least $20,000 in cash from the police evidence room. February 2, 2017 Two former civilian employees of the Bradenton Police Department - a husband and wife - have been accused of stealing at least $20,000 in cash over a five-year period from the department's evidence room. Several portions of the mamm...

In a case cracked through the use of "familial" DNA, law enforcement officials Monday identified a man believed to have committed the 1976 murder of Karen Klaas, the ex-wife of singer/songwriter Bill Medley of The Righteous Brothers. Enter Article DATE HERE In a case cracked through the use of "familial" DNA, law enforcement officials Monday i...

On August 14, 2015, money from "closed criminal cases" stored in a locked evidence room was discovered missing. Enter Article DATE HERE An investigation by the Attorney General's Office into missing money from the Westford Police Department evidence room is nearing its completion, Town Manager Jodi Ross said. On August 14, 2015, money from "cl...

Bo Williams, prosecutors said, was accused of removing the drug methamphetamine from a storage area while he was still a Spencer police officer. He resigned as a police officer in December. He resigned as the county sheriff when he pleaded guilty in court. January 22, 2017 A newly elected county sheriff in West Virginia who told authorities he was ...

The shooting and sex assault went unsolved for decades. But in 2010, it was assigned to a detective who resubmitted several pieces of evidence for forensic analysis. A DNA profile was developed from the evidence and, in 2012, the data was entered into CODIS, the national database for DNA. January 19, 2017 Florida investigators say they have at last...

Williams had been charged with grand larceny, for stealing more than $1,000 in evidence, including methamphetamine. January 18, 2017 Newly-elected Roane County Sheriff Matthew "Bo" Williams admitted in court Wednesday that he stole methamphetamine from an evidence locker at the Spencer Police Department while he was an officer there.  Williams...

Johansen made the decision to fire Schmitz after finding that the things had not been documented with the department's evidence custodian.  Enter Article DATE HERE McKenzie County officials say a deputy who was fired last week had undocumented evidence from criminal investigations in his squad car when he turned the vehicle in last month....

Investigators wrote in court paperwork that he admitted to the crime and said he took the drugs for his personal use. January 12, 2017 James B. Johnson V's arrest exemplifies what his attorney says is a modern "American tragedy" — an injury leads to painkiller addiction which, in turn, leads to heroin use. "Local kid gets injured, gets hooked on op...

Davidson, however, was not leaving without a fight. On Dec. 13, 2016 she sent a letter to Moab's mayor Dave Sakrison notifying him and the city that she was suing them for close to $2 million for firing her because, she alleged, she had "raised her concerns to the Mayor and FBI about wrongful conduct by members of the City's Police Department," Jan...

A jury in July found him guilty of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and possession with intent to distribute cocaine. December 22, 2016 McALLEN, Texas (AP) — A former South Texas police officer has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for stealing cocaine and then staging a fake bust to cover up the theft. Former Mission police offic...

The woman who heads the Anne Arundel County Police drug lab is accused of stealing dangerous drugs; federal authorities will investigate. December 21, 2016 MILLERSVILLE, MD — Potent and potentially addictive prescription narcotics, including Hydrocodone and Tramadol, were apparently taken by the manager of the Anne Arundel County Police Department ...

The Omaha Police Department's Cold Case Unit is a recipient of the 2014 Solving Cold Case with DNA Grant from the National Institute of Justice December 22, 2016 OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) - Omaha Police have announced an arrest in a cold case murder from 2012.The Pottawattamie County Sheriff's office arrested 41-year-old Shanna Golyar in the murder of Car...

He said he stole the pills because he became addicted to opioid painkillers after he was prescribed the drugs for painful intestinal disorders. Haugen said the last three and a half years "have been absolute hell," noting addiction affects the frontal lobe, the part of the brain that controls judgment. December 19, 2016 MASON CITY | A former state ...

The St. Louis-based business destroys approximately 2,000 guns a year October 10th, 2016 (KTVI) Guns from cities across the United States are ending up in the St. Louis area. And while it might sound unusual, police are pleased. "The departments want to get rid of them," Scott Reed, Vice-President of Gunbusters said.Gunbusters is exactly what the n...

As blogger Al Crespo revealed last month, the container rusted, letting in water and pests that destroyed evidence in more than 500 cases. November 16, 2016 Murder evidence is pretty important, so you'd think the Miami Police Department would have a good place to store all of those key items in unsolved cases. But it turns out that for years MPD ha...

A lone cigarette butt found in the impounded auto sat for years in an evidence locker, but it was worthless at the outset of the probe. October 22, 2016 nvestigators were right on target in 1991 when they looked to Myrtle McGill's abandoned car for clues that would lead to her killer. A lone cigarette butt found in the impounded auto sat for years ...

According to a September report from the National Institute of Justice on funding for DNA analysis, new methods are now able to yield full DNA profiles collected from old, degraded or otherwise unviable samples. November 14, 2016 In less than a decade, advancements in forensics technology have allowed scientists to "do more with less" using DNA evi...

Highway Patrol officials, discovered $1,540 was missing from another evidence bag November 7, 2016 A former South Dakota highway patrolman is charged with taking nearly $70,000 from drug arrests over the past four years.Brian William Biehl, 47, of Platte, has been arrested by complaint on one count of grand theft by law enforcement of seized proper...

Changes to how the Mount Vernon Police Department handles and disposes of evidence have been implemented in the wake of the FBI's investigation into former detective November 5, 2016 MOUNT VERNON — Changes to how the Mount Vernon Police Department handles and disposes of evidence have been implemented in the wake of the FBI's investigation into for...

The Sexual Assault Evidence Collection Kit Task Force concluded that there are 6,424 untested kits in the state. November 2, 2016 A special state task force has found that Arizona law enforcement agencies have more than 6,000 untested rape kits. The Sexual Assault Evidence Collection Kit Task Force concluded that there are 6,424 untested kits in th...