C&A Associates

One of the conversations I continue to hear at conferences and during agency visits is the growing challenge of turnover in medium to large-sized property and evidence rooms.

Agencies invest months hiring and training evidence technicians. They teach the importance of documentation, accountability, organization, and most importantly, maintaining the chain of custody. These are not skills someone learns overnight. It takes time, mentoring, and repetition to fully understand the responsibility that comes with handling evidence tied to criminal cases.

The problem is that many of these employees leave within six months to a year.

What concerns me even more is what often happens after someone has mentally decided to leave. The attention to detail starts slipping. The urgency disappears. Items get shelved where it is convenient instead of where they belong. Evidence is moved without proper care because the mindset becomes, “I don’t give a damn anymore.”
That creates a dangerous ripple effect.
Now, detectives are waiting for evidence for the court. Prosecutors need items located immediately. Supervisors are dealing with audit issues. Evidence technicians who remain are forced to stop purging, inventory work, and daily operations just to search for misplaced items. What should take minutes can turn into hours or even days.

This is one of the strongest real-world arguments for RFID technology in evidence management.
RFID is not just about automation or technology for the sake of technology. It is about protecting agencies from the reality of staffing turnover and human behavior. When evidence can be instantly located, agencies reduce wasted labor, reduce frustration, and reduce the risk of missing or misplaced evidence.
The cost of RFID tags and tracking infrastructure is often far less than the hidden cost of repeatedly hiring, training, and recovering from short-term employees who leave before mastering the job.
Technology cannot replace good people. But it can help protect agencies when turnover becomes unavoidable.
At the end of the day, evidence rooms are not just storage spaces. They are among the most critical accountability points within public safety, and the systems supporting them should reflect that reality.

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Let us help you! Glendale Police Department opens new property and evidence building. What’s clear from the field is that agencies are not just investing in better facilities—they’re looking for better systems to operate within them. Our role is to help bridge that gap and ensure our solutions continue to meet the real-world challenges our customers face every day. Over the past several months, our team has been actively working with agencies across the country as they continue to modernize their property and evidence operations. We’re seeing firsthand the increasing pressure departments are facing—higher evidence volumes, limited staffing, and growing expectations around accountability and audit readiness.

Glendale Police Department opens new property and evidence building Glendale PD opened a new property and evidence center in the city. The site also includes an interim forensics lab.

We are at the Washington State Narcotics Investigators Conference stop by booth 20 and say Hi.