V.I. Police unveil new evidence facilities

ST. CROIX — The V.I. Police Department on Wednesday unveiled new evidence-handling facilities, equipment and procedures that officials say will finally rectify pervasive deficiencies the department had left unaddressed for more than 20 years.
 
“We have gone above and beyond some of the recommendations,” said V.I. Police Commis­sioner Novelle Francis Jr. during a walk-through of the evidence facility in the Mars Hill police headquarters on St. Croix with Gov. John deJongh Jr. on Wednesday afternoon.
 
Those recommendations were contained in a blistering federal review of the department’s handling of criminal evidence. The review found deep and widespread problems that the Police Department had allowed to continue for almost two decades, despite urgent federal warnings — recommending complete overhaul — dating back to 1994.
 
The U.S. Interior Department Inspector General’s Office conducted its latest review in late 2008 and early 2009, releasing the scathing report in April 2009.
 
James McCall, who was police commissioner at the time, had requested the review.
 
The report said the pervasive nature of the problems and the Police Department’s failure to take action led to lost, contaminated and destroyed evidence and threatened the overall integrity of the V.I. justice system.
 
It detailed improper storage of evidence — evidence rooms in complete disarray — along with the lack of an inventory system, lack of a disposal system to get rid of seized weapons and failure to restrict access to areas containing evidence.
 
Police said Wednesday that, with build-outs and new equipment and security, they will be addressing all of the recommendations in the report.
 
The new evidence processing and storage area has multiple layers of security, along with restricted access areas that allow only certain personnel into certain areas.
 
The security measures include biometric fingerprint identification to gain access to specific areas — with only certain personnel allowed entry — as well as codes shared between two members of the staff to gain access to special vaults, so that each one only has half the code and cannot open the vault alone, St. Croix Deputy Police Chief Christopher Howell said.
 
There are two flammable liquid cabinets that automatically close and lock in case of fire.
 
One of the restricted areas also contains two laboratory-grade refrigerators that can hold DNA evidence and sound an alarm when temperatures exceed or fall below certain values, Howell said.
 
One of the issues the federal review revealed was that evidence refrigerators on St. Croix had been rigged with an extension cord to an outlet in a nearby lunch room, and, when the outlet lost power, no one noticed for three days, causing 100 rape evidence kits to be destroyed because they were no longer useful as evidence.
 
There are lockers for temporary storage of evidence for a few hours, which, once closed, cannot be accessed again except by cleared forensics personnel, Howell said.
 
The department also has purchased evidence-tracking software to keep track of its evidence inventory, he said.
 
Additionally, specialized equipment that will dry blood-soaked evidence and fume chambers to help technicians lift fingerprints have been purchased.
 
One of the issues the report noted was that blood-soaked evidence was not protected from contamination, because police draped bloody evidence over makeshift drying racks, with evidence from different cases overlapping each other.
 
The evidence facility also includes an enclosed area where vehicles can be processed, storage rooms and a ballistics testing area.
 
The entire area meets the standards set by the International Association of Property and Evidence, Howell said. Police also have destroyed old seized weapons during the last year.
 
“The goal was to come into complete compliance,” Howell said.
 
Work on phase one of the build-out and renovation is complete, with 80 percent of the second phase finished, officials said.
 
The work was funded with a $1 million appropriation, split between the island districts, Francis said.
 
With work almost complete, the St. Croix project at this point has cost just under $400,000, Francis said, adding that he expects the entire project on St. Croix to come in under budget.
 
Similar work is under way on St. Thomas. Francis said the new evidence-handling facilities there would be operational “in short order,” but declined to give a specific date when that would occur.
 
DeJongh said the projects will resolve a 30-year-old problem in the territory, and thanked police officials for their hard work in getting the job done.

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