Evidence of an evidence problem
On last week's cover story about the police evidence control problem, I feel this is skewed and opinionated ("Continuity errors," by Jacob Boon). There seems to be an "urban myth" that the police will take seized drugs and traffic them on the street; are you saying this could be true? You are feeding the mad-at-the-world fringes who will cry "police brutality" on a stupid whim and who cannot trust the police—this makes their job difficult. I do not understand why The Coast as a publication has to find something to be mad at the world about, and seems to think that being "independent" means that we need to fight the world. There is enough cynicism in the world without you adding to it. —Allistair Fraser, Halifax
This is not a scandal as it's puported. Can we wait to see the end of the investigation before we jump to conclusions? Theft and collusion is far different than inventory management issues; I daresay every audit uncovers some issues. That's why we have audits—to improve upon current practices. Yet another example of poor journalism. —posted by Charlie Brown at thecoast.ca
Cleary this Jacob Boon kid is some kind of black bloq, anti-establishment, tinfoil hat-wearing conspiracy theorist hack that recently got a speeding ticket and is seeking revenge. This article is filth. —posted by giddyup
"A follow-up search conducted in May dropped some of those numbers, but the results remain significant. The department still can't locate 52 percent of the sample exhibits in CID, 12 percent in HQ and 32 percent of the money vault. Two full-time employees are currently working to track those 67 exhibits down." Nah, this seems pretty newsworthy. If 52 percent of the stationery at an average office couldn't be accounted for, you bet there would be meetings about it. If 32 percent of the cash at a convenience store couldn't be accounted for, you bet there would be firings. —posted by Humeyni
This is horrifying. The police should be holding themselves to a 100 percent continuity rate when it comes to handling evidence—it's literally one of their most important jobs because to NOT do it would undermine everything else they do! If the department is unable to perform the simple task of recording and safely storing evidence, then they shouldn't be allowed to wander the city with uniforms and guns. —posted by reeeiiid
Good job Mr. Boon. This is a very serious issue and no amount of "nothing to see here" from any of these city employees can diminish that fact. This is mostly a factual piece, there is no question of "balance" as the other poster said. —posted by Freedom of the Press
I'm honestly shocked about the lack of security and oversight when handling and caring for evidence that is used in court cases. On CBC they reported over 50 percent of the contents (drugs and money) were missing after the audit was completed. How many court cases were affected in some way by this negligence? —posted by Rubyjaye
