Easier said than done.

Once police recover your stolen property it's out of their hands. Officially. However, the police can still help you get it back, if they choose to take the time.

Here's how it works. The property goes into evidence and the prosecutor's office decides whether or not it can be released. That requires police to get a signed form, go down to the evidence storage facility, present the document. Then you have to present  ID to recover your property. Easy right?

We thought so, but it wasn't for a Falls Church woman. DC police along with Prince George's County police managed to recover her stolen purse along with several others, snatched out of cars while the drivers were stopped to fill up with gas. Dewana King was called to the scene where police had recovered a stolen vehicle and a bunch of purses. She identified her purse and was told it would be returned after the car was processed. It wasn't, nearly two months passed. 

Her purse contained credit cards, her social security card and even her passport. Why couldn't police just photograph the evidence and give it back to her? We suggested it. They asked the US Attorney's office and voila, it was done. It took less than 24 hours.

However, during this investigation we observed binders of full of paperwork documenting recovered stolen property. The Metropolitan Police Department has become an inventory control center. They have volumes of recovered property to manage and a warehouse full of it.  We often get complaints from people who can't recover their property in a timely fashion.

The Superior Court division of the US attorney's office says typically there's no need to hang on to personal possessions, like credit cards, passports etc unless they are needed for forensic evidence (fingerprints and so on). They can usually be itemized and photographed and returned to the rightful owner.

Thanks to Capt Frank Hill of the 6th District and Officer Sheamus Brackett for handling this case.    However, as an outside observer it appears that the MPD property division and some officers need to take a closer at how they are conducting business to better serve victims of crime. Perhaps someone needs to look at inventory control, evidence storage, and how to better streamline the system to ensure what's needed to be held, is kept and what should be returned be given back to its rightful owner.

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