Drug Raid Money Undergoing Audit

Sat., Nov. 16, 1996

From Staff And Wire Reports

An audit is under way to determine whether money - much of it seized in drug busts - is missing from the Seattle Police Department’s evidence room.

The investigation has been going on since March, when a routine internal audit detected discrepancies in the amount of cash held in the evidence room, police spokeswoman Carmen Best said.

It’s still unclear whether cash is actually missing or whether the discrepancies are an accounting problem, she said. It’s possible the inconsistencies stem from the computerization of evidence-room records following the recommendations of a 1994 audit, she said.

Police would not disclose the amount of possibly missing money, but KIRO-TV, citing unnamed sources, put the figure at more than $30,000.

The evidence room is staffed 24 hours a day, every day. Items are checked in an out as they are needed for investigations and court cases.

“It’s a fairly significant task to include these different agencies and the different routes (of evidence) and that sort of thing,” police spokesman Sean O’Donnell said of the length of the investigation. “It’s unclear at this point how long this is going to take.”

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