CENTERVILLE—A much-needed new evidence storage room will help the Centerville Police Department make the storage process more secure, department officials say.

As the department has grown over the years, so too has the space needed to store evidence. The current evidence room has overflowed into an adjacent annex and both are filled to capacity, Lt. Allen Ackerson told the the City Journals.

Last year, Police Chief Paul Child went to the city council hoping to get $60,000 to construct a new evidence room. Initially they approved the full amount. However, due to COVID restraints on the budget the remodel was put on hold; it was brought back in January. The city council also trimmed the allotted amount to $50,000.

The smaller budget will mean the police department will need to wait on tracked rolling evidence shelves. Still, they are excited to move forward on the project which is expected to commence in May or June, Ackerson said. It should be completed this summer. Spacesaver Intermountain is the contractor. No disruption is expected during construction.

The new 10 feet deep by 35 feet room, which will be constructed in a former storage area, should double the amount of space for the department to house evidence.

With the new evidence room the police department will “be able to house more evidence than we have the ability to right now and it will bring us more in line with current standards for evidence storage,” Ackerson said.

Along with a larger space, the new evidence room will include storage lockers that will utilize more secure electronic locks. Once evidence is placed inside and the door is shut, they will only be able to be opened on the other side in the evidence room side. Current lockers utilize keys which must be passed between the booking officer and the evidence custodian, Ackerson said. The new room will also have upgraded refrigerated lockers.

Currently two officers manage the evidence room. While some evidence is destroyed based on a schedule, the police department is required to retain much of it for various lengths of time, up to 50 years for some sexual assault kits, for example. Other evidence must be held indefinitely, depending on the case.

Evidence removal from the old area to the new room will follow an International Association for Property & Evidence-approved.

“It’s a difficult process due to the secure nature of the evidence and the fact that only two officers are able to access and handle it,” Ackerson said.

The new evidence room “will bring us more in line with proper standards,” he said. “It will allow us to store more evidence for longer periods of time. It will make the evidence booking process more secure with less opportunities for theft.”