by Jeremy Hunt
Daily Lobo
From chicken claws to sausages, Detective Ronnie Rushing said just about everything comes to the UNM Police Department to be filed as evidence.
"It could be anything - anything that helps to prove or disprove a person's guilt in court can be used as evidence," said Rushing, one of the evidence custodians for the department.
Lt. Pat Davis, UNM Police spokesman, said the evidence room houses a lot of random items that may be needed by the district attorney.
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"There's some weird stuff in here," he said. "Anything that an officer or victim feels has relation to a crime."
Last year, the department processed 1,204 pieces of evidence, Rushing said.
The evidence room is filled with items the department collects when it files a report, including guns, pool cues, a hockey stick, a cane, a two-by-four, broken glass, paintballs and guns, backpacks, car stereos, computers, swords, and tires and rims from vehicles.
Rushing said one of the strangest files he processed included a penny and some feathers and a claw from a chicken.
The most common evidence that comes in is illegal drugs, he said.
"We get a little bit of everything, and it's almost always just a little bit," he said. "Contraband, of course, we can't give back."
Rushing said that except for illegal items, the department tries to return items if it knows who the owner is and doesn't need it for court.
"If it isn't needed for evidence, we can return it - if somebody comes in and can identify it," he said.
Davis said countless marijuana bongs and pipes come to the evidence room and are scheduled for destruction.
Rushing said UNM students are not the only source of the items the police confiscate for evidence.
"It's spread out just as much as APD," he said.
Officers collect evidence at the scene of a crime. Then, they fill out a property records sheet, where they describe the item.
The evidence is tagged and placed in a temporary locker outside the evidence room.
Rushing said he takes the evidence from the lockers every morning and puts it in the evidence room.
The evidence is filed and put into a computer log until a disposition from the district attorney's office requests the evidence, he said.
"Anything an officer needs, I can get in a couple minutes,"
he said.
Some items are held for years after a case has gone to court because it may be needed again if an appeal is made, Rushing said.
The police hold all evidence until the district attorney gives them permission to destroy it or get rid of it, he said.
Rushing said the drugs are burned.
Guns are given to the Albuquerque Police Department for destruction, he said.
The APD's bomb squad used to blow up the guns, but now it has a machine that crushes them,
he said.
Davis said that the department will file a report for any illegal items it comes across, even if no crime has been committed.
"If it's contraband, we're going to seize it," he said. "You may find something on the street that doesn't seem that important, but tomorrow it may come out in a report that we can use it."
