Property, Exhibits and Evidence – Hardcat Lebosi

Hardcat® Lebosi® Property and Evidence solution

Hardcat Lebosi property and evidence system is specifically designed to manage the receipting, transfer and disposal of property, evidence and exhibit items. In this instance, an exhibit is any property in law enforcement possession that may be tendered in court as evidence. While property includes (but is not limited to) items of personal property, vehicles, drugs, firearms and cash held in custody.

Property and exhibit management is integral to policing and critical to successful prosecutions. While managing property and exhibits is primarily a clerical function, mismanagement can pose risks to the administration of justice and can impact the community’s perception of police integrity.

Police and other such agencies collect a vast range of property in the course of their duties, encompassing all lost and found, created, surrendered and seized property that comes into their possession.

Victoria Police records show approximately 470 000 items in police possession as at June 2018, stored at more than 200 locations, including police stations, central storage locations, Crime Command and the Victoria Police Forensic Services Centre.

VAGO Exhibits

Law enforcement must also store and secure property in a way that supports frontline personnel, reducing associated risks such as Occupational Health & Safety (OH&S)/Work Health & Safety (WHS) risks and maintaining evidentiary value.

 

Property in Possession

The sheer volume of property seized by police has exacerbated the problems of storage, disposal, workload and security. In turn, this has increased the strain on current systems, resources and morale.

WA Police property management practices

The volume of property and exhibits, when combined with ineffective systems and processes used to manage them, results in additional avoidable costs for storage and administration and, at times, keeps police personnel away from their primary operational duties.

 

Pain Points for Property Managers

• Capacity to store property and find items in a timely manner
• Security at property received and exhibits storage locations regarding unauthorised personnel
• Large items such as boats, trucks and cars are stored in highly visible and vulnerable open compounds unsecured because of a lack of deterrents such as perimeter alarms or video surveillance
• Annual and local property audits are frequently not completed
• No system alerts in place that initiate follow-up action on a non-receipted property on the transfer
• Delays in receipting, and lack of follow-up of property transfers, leave that property at considerable risk of misappropriation
• Personnel spend too much time entering the property into the system(s), taking them away from the frontline

 

Property Exhibits and Evidence System

Hardcat Lebosi evidence solutions are designed to provide unprecedented governance over the full custody chain and are the most comprehensive and efficient in securing and tracking property, exhibits and evidence.

The Hardcat Property and Evidence system effectively manages the investigative and forensic process with a complete audit trail of all physical and digital property and evidence. From the point of capture, right through to court and final disposal. Live-tracking of movements, transfers and data access means complete visibility at every stage and that the chain of custody is fully transparent.

 

Hardcat Lebosi P&E Benefits

• Improves the general handling and management of the stored property
• Improves procedures and processes to prevent corruption and other misconduct related to property
• Straightforward, time saving and user friendly
• Provides storage efficiencies, in terms of time taken to record, store and retrieve goods
• Timely disposal of property under the provisions of section 94 of the Criminal Property Confiscation Act 2000.
• Timely follow-up alerts in relation to long-held property and exhibits, action on purge items, where appropriate
• Easily identify, locate and transfer ‘unattached’ property items to appropriate business areas
• Restrict independent access to drug storage facilities, together with video surveillance to monitor personnel within the drug storage facility
• No need for a paper-based receipting system to record, account and facilitate the management of property across the agency

 

Create Operational Efficiencies with Mobile Solutions

At Hardcat we understand that property and evidence is not collected at your desk. That’s why we’ve created mobile apps that allow your team to capture property and evidence from the scene.

Our mobile solutions increase accuracy and efficiency and eliminate the need for paper form reporting. Authorised officers can have immediate access to analysis and results and improve productivity with instant log book processing and reporting.

 

Don’t Spend Hours Logging Exhibits After A Job

Hardcat property and evidence management solutions centralize exhibits, property and evidence into one hub for easy file access and sharing between officers and investigators. Maintaining an unbreakable chain of custody that ensures an accurate audit log is always available.

Analyse existing evidence, uncover connections, generate new leads, and solve cases faster.

• Data fields are self-explanatory and intuitive because all fields are customizable, use your own terminology
• All property-related functions are available on one screen
• Simple user interface for the entry of property and evidence
• Reduce the time taken to perform simple tasks
• Capacity to store and find items in a timely manner
• Annual and local property audits are fast and easy with mobile devices
• System alerts that initiate follow-up action on the non-receipted property on transfer
• Timely follow-up of property transfers, reducing misappropriation

Hardcat has been providing solutions to law enforcement for over 30 years. No matter where your evidence is being stored, inside in an evidence room, in an open area outside, in a container etc, Hardcat’s property and evidence system allows you to create a secure hierarchical location structure.

 

Track chain of custody, from the initial collection by an officer to the final disposition. Allowing for complete transparency over what property, exhibits and evidence you have, as well as where they are located.