MPO Randy Betzer

Officer Zeth Giles

The main goal and function of an Evidence Officer is to see that all evidence turned in is maintained in a safe and unaltered state until it is need for court, returned to the rightful owner or properly destroyed.

The Officers tags items of evidence which they seize as part of their investigation. The evidence is then put in a secure locker at the Decatur Police Department evidence locker storage area. The officer locks the locker and then drops the key for that locker in a wall safe. The Decatur Police Department Evidence Officer(s) are the only personnel with access to the wall safe. The keys are removed daily by the Evidence Officer(s), who unlock the evidence locker where the evidence was stored. The evidence is removed from the lockers and then logged into the system and safely/securely stored until it is needed.

Once a week, evidence that requires specific lab work to be done by the Illinois State Police Crime Lab, is transported to the State Lab in Springfield. If the lab has finished with other evidence items previously transported to them, they are returned to the vault here, logged back in and stored until needed. The Evidence Officer maintains a chain of custody for each piece of evidence, so that each piece of evidence can be tracked from seizure, through testing, storage, court and finally to be returned or destroyed.

If evidence or found property is to be returned to an owner there are a limited number of ways to do that. If the item is marked as person property or found property the owner has to make a positive identification on the item and it is returned. If the item is evidence, then there has to be an authorization from either the Officer tagging the evidence or a letter from States Attorney’s office. If the item was taken under a search warrant then a court order is needed for a release.