An independent audit of operations at the Aspen Police Department has found an “unusually high” number of errors in their cataloging, collection and preservation of evidence.

Out of 172 Aspen criminal cases randomly selected by inspectors from Professional Police Consulting, 130 had pieces of evidence incorrectly labeled or missing.

The cataloged items that auditors could not find in the evidence department include a sword used in a 2004 assault, two mini skirts, lidocaine and syringes, a “victim’s white panties” from a 2009 case, a glass dove seized in 2003, and a sports drink stolen from City Market.

The audit also reported that $4,683 in cash from a 2001 theft is unaccounted for. In all, the auditors reported counting errors or missing funds in 43 out of 54 currency cases surveyed — an 80 percent error rate.

In drug cases, the department erred 82 percent of the time — in 87 of 106 cases checked. Most of those mistakes were in incorrectly labeling or weighing seized drugs, the report states. Drugs were unaccounted for in just a few cases, totaling about a quarter ounce of marijuana and 1.7 grams of cocaine.

Out of six weapons cases surveyed, one weapon was reportedly stored unsafely with ammunition.

“The error rate observed in this audit is unusually high for the amount of evidence being handled,” auditor Kim Barron wrote in a memorandum to Aspen Police Chief Pryor.

Chief Pryor said he believed most of the missteps came down to “errors in documentation” of the evidence. With items like the missing $4,683, Pryor said, the department is investigating “very closely.” And this week he has already begun overhauling the department’s evidence procedures.

Dan Montgomery, a former Westminster police chief who ran the APD study, urged the department to hire a full-time evidence custodian. Currently, officers and administrative staff work with evidence in addition to their other tasks.

“In my mind,” Montgomery wrote to the Aspen chief, “knowing how important it is to maintain a high level of integrity, efficiency and effectiveness in a property and evidence function where you store guns, drugs, money, jewelry and other items of value, I would seriously consider having one full-time employee devoted exclusively to the property-evidence function.”

Chief Pryor said yesterday, “It would be great to have someone to dedicate. We just don’t have the funding.”

But the department is following other recommendations from the evidence portion of the audit, including cataloging all existing evidence, destroying old evidence, investigating missing items and money, and cross-checking what it actually has with what computer records says it has. Pryor is also implementing a bar code system that will keep track of where and when evidence is moved.

At the auditors’ recommendation, the department is changing protocol for the weighing, labeling and cataloging of narcotics.

The auditors cited “lack of proper training” and lack of full-time evidence officers as the main reason for the seemingly sloppy evidence upkeep. Officers taking in evidence on top of patrol and other duties is “resulting in not enough time being spent to adequately address this high liability area of the police department,” the audit report states.

Pryor ordered the outside audit — the first known in Aspen police history — earlier this year, following apparent APD evidence collection and preservation issues that proved problematic as the district attorney’s office prosecuted a high-profile sex assault case.

When he commissioned it, the chief said the department needed to be open with the public in addressing its shortcomings. He echoed that sentiment yesterday, and said the department will benefit widely from the independent feedback.

“I’m really glad we’ve done this,” he said. “It’s a positive thing for the organization, even though it raises some issues for us.”

Along with the evidence evaluation, the auditors broke down the department’s organization and procedures manual. They recommended the department get accredited with the Colorado Professional Law Enforcement Standards. It would require the APD to adhere to 185 professional standards. About 15 percent of law enforcement entities in Colorado have the accreditation.

Pryor said he is interested in getting accredited because it would increase credibility for and improve professionalism within the department.

“It’s a broader base of support,” he said, “to have them standing behind us and saying, ‘These are the best practices’ and, ‘This is the way we should be operating.’”

Gaining state accreditation would also save the city money on police insurance, he said.

But adopting a statewide brand of law enforcement might not jibe with what the police chief called the APD’s traditionally “unique style.”

He and his staff are currently reviewing the state standards line by line, evaluating whether they make sense for Aspen and whether they will be acceptable to citizens here.

“Our relationship with the community is exceptionally important,” Pryor said. “We work for the community, and that’s why we haven’t yet committed [to the accreditation].”

Montgomery, the auditor, also notes that he did not analyze officer workload or staffing needs.

“I am not really able to make any reliable determination as to how adequately you are staffed,” he wrote in a letter to Pryor.

The full report is available for public viewing at www.aspenpolice.com [1].
andrew@aspendailynews.com