A 2018 internal audit of the Centralia Police Department’s two property storage rooms uncovered a glut of errors, including missing or misplaced evidence, prompting the department to reevaluate personnel managing the intake, outtake and organization of evidence.
It could have been much worse, indicated Chief Carl Nielsen, noting that none of the affected evidence was tied to active criminal cases.
“It was a step backward,” said Nielsen. “It was a shock for all of us. Particularly, you saw the number of discrepancies. Now fortunately, the vast majority of those discrepancies were not lost items or misplaced items, they were just not in the right spot.”
The total number of…
