10 Things to Know When Investing in Police Evidence Lockers

There’s no denying that preserving chain of custody is the #1 priority for police department when it comes to evidence—and the best way to ensure that this chain remains unbroken is to invest in the type of police evidence lockers that work the best for your department’s processes.

However, features and options that departments often take for granted with locker construction can make the difference between lockers that are easy to use—and lockers that might cause some issues. To help, we’ve created a Top 10 list of things to know when considering new evidence lockers for your department:

Durable Construction

Police evidence lockers need to be ironclad. Look for locker banks with heavy-gauge, welded construction that can withstand a lot of use, with high-quality paint that resists rust and scratches. As the life span of a typical public safety facility can range anywhere from 20-50 years, it’s important to look for lockers with good warranties.

Fully Enclosed Compartments
It sounds obvious, but a police evidence locker should have fully enclosed compartments to ensure that no evidence spills or any cross-contamination occurs between locker compartments.

Locker Latching
Once you get the evidence from the crime scene and into temporary evidence storage, there are still plenty of opportunities for evidence to be damaged. A way to avoid this is to look for a locker with a dual-latching mechanism that resides in the door and the frame, leaving the inside of the locker free from any protrusions.

Locker Types
Typically, police evidence lockers fall into two categories—pass-thru (PT) or non-pass-thru (NPT). PT lockers are built into the wall of a department, allowing evidence to be deposited on one side and retrieved from another, with a full-size rear door to remove items efficiently and be able to reset locker openings for use. With NPT lockers, evidence is deposited and retrieved from the same doors, and can only be removed by authorized personnel. Departments who are embarking on new construction typically choose to go with the PT option. If you choose to go with a NPT system, choose one that can be converted into a PT configuration at a later date.

Rear Door Options

The right kind of rear doors for pass-thru lockers can be a timesaver for officers or evidence technicians. Solid metal doors may be preferred for extra security, but more technicians are requesting mesh rear doors. Mesh doors reduce wasted time, because there’s an easy way to glance into the lockers and know if there’s evidence to process instead of having to open up the doors to look. For a small department, this might be less of an issue—but it could be a small detail that could help in larger departments.

Keyless Deposit
Depositing evidence should be simple, efficient, and something that leaves little room for error. With a keyless, push-button lock system, there’s no worry about getting keys to an evidence technician—or worse, having to deal with misplaced keys.

Locking Options
In addition to the keyless deposit mentioned above, there are plenty of additional locking options available. Some pass-thru lockers have optional front-lock-out features, which will automatically lock the front doors when the rear doors are open. There are also more sophisticated locking systems, such as Digilock or ContolLoc, which offers a way to create PIN-codes for personnel. ControlLoc also allows authorized personnel to track and document which officers or evidence technicians access the system.

Locker Configurations
Evidence locker configurations should mirror the types of evidence the department takes in on a regular basis. If you take in a lot of rifles or long guns, planning for several long locker compartments is a good idea. Bulky items might require several large, square compartments, and so on.

Room for Refrigeration
All refrigerators are not created equal—and critical biological evidence shouldn’t be stored in the same type of refrigerator that’s in your kitchen. Refrigerated evidence storage needs to have the same chain of custody as other evidence, which is why having refrigerated evidence in the same bank as your other evidence lockers is crucial.

Mail Slot Capabilities

No matter the size of your department, there’s only so much space in your temporary evidence lockers. Being able to have the option for a mail slot opening in one of your lockers allows you to deposit several small items in the same space without having to use individual lockers for each item.

Now that you know what to consider, take a closer look at evidence locker options by downloading our Evidence Storage Brochure.Take a closer look at Evidence Locker options.

You will receive a link to download this free guide to our Evidence Storage Lockers.

Whether you’re planning a renovation or new construction, we can help you save space and get organized — and we can refer you to your local affiliate if you’re outside New England.