JOE Alexander Clrrrono H. Neweu- As9stant Dstrict Attorney Randall Billingsley District Attorney

Adherence to the requirement for a complete inventory upon a change of evidence technician or supervisor: The Grass Valley Police Department has and will continue to adhere to this requirement. Audits will be diligently scheduled upon the change of an evidence technician orevidence supervisor, These 2l audits will include a LOO% inventory of all firearms, money, and narcotics. These audits were performed in2012 and 2015 upon the change of evidence technicians, and again in 2016 upon the appointment of a new Chief of Police.

The staff at all four evidence handling units appear to be well trained and capable. The use of sworn officers in the Nevada City Police Department Evidence Handling Unit removes patrol officers from their primary duties to the detriment of efficient law enforcement. The Nevada City Police Department is seeking to replace the sworn officers performing evidence handling duties with a nonsworn employee or volunteer. Agree

lnventories of firearms, narcotics, and money must be conducted on at least a quarterly basis: The random spot inventories conducted by the evidence sergeant and captain have and will continue to include checking of firearms, narcotics and money. These random spot inventories will be conducted quarterly at a minimum.

The police department evidence handling units are marginally in compliance with their ornrn policies and procedures and with best practices concerning audits and inventories of the evidence handling units although they all are due or overdue for biennial external audits. Partiallv Apree: The NCPD Evidence Handling Unit is in compliance with POST and Lexipol standards as indicated on page I of the report. There is a need for a biennial external audit. 1of 3 N.C.P.D. / Ctty Hall . 3lTBroadStreet . NevadaCity,Caiiforniag1g1g . (530) 265-4700

The Nevada County Sheriff's Office's Sheriff's Propefty Unit has not been subjected to an external audit since 2007 and there are no written records of any internal audits, inventories or inspections since that time. Hence, the Nevada County Sheriff's Office's Sheriff's Propefty Unit is out of compliance with its own policies and procedures and with best practices concerning audits and inventories of evidence handling units. Agree

Best practices dictate that all agencies should rigorously adhere to the requirement for a complete inventory upon a change of evidence technician or supervisor. Additionally, random spot inventories need to be performed and documented. Inventories of firearms, narcotics and money must be conducted on a biennial basis at a minimum. Agree. It should be noted that in the ten years as the District Attorney we have had only two occasions where evidence was an issue and we still obtained convictions in those cases.

AII agencies should rigorously adhere to the requirement for a complete inventory upon a change of evidence technician or supervisor. Additionally, random spot inventories need to be performed and documented. lnventories of firearms, narcotics and money must be conducted on at least a quarterly basis. Finally, external audits must be conducted on a biennial basis at a minimum. This recommendation will be partially implemented. To my knowledge, the Nevada County Sheriff's Property Unit has never lost an item of evidence. Every time an item of evidence is requested for court, or to be returned to an individual, the item has been located. Each and every one of these instances acts as a spot inventory. This is not to say that scheduled inventories and audits are not needed, just that the urgency is not apparent. Supervisors have and will continue to make spot inventories of the inventory at the Property Unit. Additionally, we will update our policy to require the spot inventory results to be documented. We expect the updated polices to be in place by September ,2016. We will request an outside audit be performed prior to the end of 2016. We are currently in process of completing a complete inventory, a process that was begun right after the retirement of one of our evidence technicians. lt is not reasonable to conduct a complete inventory upon change of every supervisor, as the superuisors do not perform the function of the evidence technicians. The Sheriff's Office would like to thank the members of the 2015-2016 Grand Jury for their participation and efforl in preparing their reports. We committed to providing the highest level of safety and security to our employees, the public, and inmates. Sincerely, A ?((^t \--__ Keith Royal Sheriff-Coroner a J f:- - : .i r Town Council AU6282016 jy Depaftment Heads ; i --- Tonv Lashbrook, Town Manager Joan deRyk Jones, Mayor CKDP +tl2 Andy Morris. Town Attorney "" Adam McGill, Chief of Police Morgan Goodwin, Vice Mayor John McLaughlin, Community Development Director Kim Szczurek, Administrative Serylces Director Carolyn Wallace Dee, Council Member Judy Price, Town Clerk Patrick Flora. Council Member Daniel Wilkins, Public Works DirectorlTown Engineer Alicia Barr, Council Member rMil August 23,2016 Qor, The Honorable Tom Anderson Presiding Judge of the Grand Jury 201 Church Street Nevada City, CA 95959 Re: Town of Truckee Response to 2O15l16 County of Nevada Grand Jury Report on Law Enforcement Evidence Handling Units Honorable Judge Anderson: The Town of Truckee Police Department was included in the 2015/16 County of Nevada Grand Jury report release on June 13,2016 regarding law enforcement evidence handling units. Although the Grand Jury requested a response from the Truckee Chief of Police regarding Finding #4 and #6 and Recommendation #7, Penal Code Section 933(c) requires the Town's response to come from its "governing body", i.e. the Town Council. The Town Council has reviewed and approved this letter. Please find the Town's responses outlined below. Finding #4 "The police depaftment evidence handling units are marginally in compliance with their own policies and procedures and with best practices concerning audits and inventories of the evidence handling units although they all are due or overdue for biennial external audits." Town of Truckee Response: Disagree The recommendation of the biennial audit will not be implemented because it is not warranted. The POST Law Enfoi'cement Evidence & Property Management Guide 2013 (latest edition), recommends the following, "Audits should be conducted on both a routine and random basis. Audits should be conducted when information is received that the integrity of the systems or facility is in question, when there is a change in the agency head, or when there is a change in evidence/property personnel." Since none of these situations have occurred, the Truckee Police Department believes that a biennial audit is not required at this time. Routine and random selective audits occur throughout each year to maintain accountability. 10183 Truckee Airport Road, Truckee, CA 96161-3306 Tahoeffruckee lel www.townoftruckee.com lt.tlElcrt Administration: 530-582-7700 lFax: 530-582-7710 I email: truckee@townoftruckee.com Community Development: 530-582-7820 I Fax.530-582-7889 I email: cdd@townoftruckee.com 'llll' Animal Services 530-582-7830 / Fax. 530-582-1103 I email. animalservices@townoftruckee.com Police Department: 530-550-2323lFax'.530-582-7771 I email: policedepaftment@townoftruckee.com 2012 Printed on recycled paper. Finding #6 "Best practices dictate that all agencies should rigorously adhere to the requirement for a complete inventory upon change of evidence technician or supervlsor. Additionally, random spot inventories need to be performed and documented. lnventories of firearms, narcotics, and money must be conducted on at least a quarterly basis. Finally, external audits must be conducted on a biennial basls at a minimum." Town of Truckee Response: Disagree The Truckee Police Department currently complies with the recommendation to conduct complete inventories when there is a change in evidence personnel or change of agency head as well as the recommended spot inventories. However, as stated above, we believe that the biennial audit is not required by the POST Law Enforcement Evidence & Property Management Guide.

Three evidence handling units expressed concerns about the timeliness of evidence disposition authorization from the Nevada County District Attomey's Office. Such delays adversely affect the ability to purge evidence in a timely fashion. Agree. (See below recommendation response for detail) l/ 201 CoMMEncIeI STREET, NEVADA CITY, CALIFORNIA 95959 PuoNe: (530) 265-1301 Fax: (530) 478-1871

Given the size of the Nevada City Police Department, maintaining its own evidence handling unit creates a burden in terms of space, manpower and cost. In the past, the Grass Valley Police Department and the Nevada City Police Department considered consolidating their separate evidence handling units into one central evidence handling unit. Partiallv Asree: The NCPD and GVPD will continue to explore the possibility consolidating the Evidence Handling Unit to determine if consolidation is beneficial.