March 02--Stolen flat-screen TVs, cameras and iPads seized by Orlando police are being used by officers, investigators and even Chief Paul Rooney.
All of the property was seized after a controversial shooting in a crowded Target parking lot more than a year ago, when police fired at three unarmed men accused of buying the merchandise with stolen credit cards.
Suspect Rogelio Cortes was shot multiple times, but all the charges against him were ultimately dropped, and he's now planning to sue the city. Nearly a year after the shooting, the other two suspects pleaded guilty to possession of a stolen credit card and fraudulent use of a stolen credit card.
Once the case was resolved, the department no longer needed to hold on to the seized, unclaimed evidence. So it began farming out costly electronics to officers, command staff and those in specialty units.
It's not illegal -- or even improper -- to do this. And Rooney says the valuable items are enabling his department to make use of the technology without spending public money to buy it.
"Why not do this?" Rooney said. "Our policy says to utilize forfeitures to the fullest extent possible."
But a day after the Orlando Sentinel began questioning the department about the distribution of the electronics last month, Economic-crimes Detective Michael Stevens wrote an internal email to his boss and others explaining what was done with the evidence seized from this high-profile case.
"All of the items we have taken control of for agency use, we were unable to determine true ownership of the items. In other words, who the actual victim is?" Stevens wrote. "... Could they be stolen? Sure. Could they be from credit card fraud? Sure."
His email goes on to say "...credit card companies take losses all the time in fraud ... the credit card companies were informed by the victims of the fraud and covered the victims' loss."
Items used to 'fight crime'
Days after the criminal case over the stolen credit cards was resolved in October, officers began submitting written requests for the expensive items.
The police press office received a 55-inch Samsung LED TV with an estimated value of more than $2,000. Ten iPads, worth up to $600 each, were handed out to the training, crime-scene and crisis-negotiation units, and the chief.
Three professional-grade Nikon cameras and two point-and-shoot cameras were given to crime-scene investigators. A Sony Vaio laptop computer was given to the computer-forensics lab.
Experts say converting seized evidence for departmental use can create the perception in the public of a department that uses items taken from criminals for its own gain, rather than auctioning the items or donating them to charity.
"This could be perfectly legitimate and legal to do, but what does it look like [to the public]," said Doug Ward, director of the Division of Public Safety Leadership at John Hopkins University in Maryland. "On the face of it, it creates a lot of questions, and the police department owes the public an explanation."
Rooney said the practice is nothing new and has many benefits.
Detectives tried to return the property to Target and Best Buy, where the items were illegally purchased, but the stores wouldn't accept it. Instead of letting the items collect dust in the property and evidence room that is "bursting at the seams," Rooney said, it is being used to help officers "fight crime."
Rooney said the iPad has helped him respond quickly to emails, review crime stats and read important meeting minutes, ultimately saving him time. Instead of buying the tablet with taxpayer money, Rooney said, he opted to use what was available in the evidence room.
Unclaimed evidence up for grabs
Typically, when crime-scene evidence is seized -- such as loot stolen in a burglary, drugs, guns or money -- it can't generally be used for department business, or the owners of stolen property are easily found because they have filed police reports.
But what was unique about this case, experts said, is that this evidence didn't have an owner and was valuable.
Typically police would return such items to their rightful owners -- in this case the Target or Best Buy locations where they were fraudulently purchased. But the retailers refused to accept the electronics because of store policies, police records show.
Target would not discuss its policies with the Sentinel. Best Buy officials did not return emails or phone calls seeking comment.
State law allows law enforcement several options when dealing with unclaimed evidence, but only after a 60-day waiting period following the conclusion of any court proceedings. In this case, officers waited just days before requesting the items.
After the waiting period, police can convert the goods to agency use, transfer the property to another agency, donate it to charity, sell it at auction or destroy it.
Orlando police policy requires a letter detailing the available abandoned items be sent to supervisors, who can then make requests for the items.
On Friday, Rooney signed off on more evidence conversion from other cases.
An investigator requested multiple seized computer hard drives be given to the digital-forensics lab for evidence storage during digital examinations. It saved the agency about $1,000, Rooney said.
A Neighborhood Watch specialist requested an abandoned bicycle be donated to a resident who is active in Neighborhood Watch and patrols the Parramore community. Rooney also approved that.
In the case of the stolen electronics seized after the Target shooting, Rooney approved all of the requested items.
In one memo obtained by the Sentinel, detectives from the economic-crimes unit who seized the items requested the 55-inch television for public-information officer Sgt. Vince Ogburn's office to replace "outdated and non-functional" televisions.
It's part of Ogburn's job to watch, and sometimes record, the television news. The new TV is mounted on the wall in his office beside four small, old sets.
"It's absolutely pertinent, and I have absolutely no concern about it," Rooney said when asked about the TV. "That's why I signed off on it."
If the department opted to buy a new TV for the PIO, it would not have purchased such a large or expensive set, Rooney said.
Police-practices consultant Chuck Drago said the use of that much expensive equipment "seems a little extreme when you look at it from the outside."
Drago spent nearly three decades at the Fort Lauderdale Police Department and served as the Oviedo police chief from 2004-07. During that time, he said, it was rare that officers in his agency would use abandoned evidence.
In Drago's experience, abandoned items were more likely to be auctioned or donated than converted for department use.
Orlando does have numerous items, including cameras and electronics, listed for sale on an unaffiliated auction site: propertyroom.com. But auctioned items don't fetch much money and are listed at a fraction of the retail cost.
"Sometimes it better to auction it off or give it to a charity," Drago said, "than to get that sideward glance from people."
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Copyright 2012 - The Orlando Sentinel, Fla.
