June 1981 - San Francisco Police Officers Association

SAN FRANCISCO POLICEMAN - Page 12 June 1981HANGING ON BY A THREADLieutenant Joseph Mangan and his staff which includesone sergeant, six patrolmen and six civilians,have a tremendous job on their hands. Together theyrun the Property Clerk's Office.The status of over 50,000 items including physicalevidence, personal property and all bail money, ismaintained in their Hall of Justice basement facility. In1979 over 27,000 parcels of property were booked in;19,600 were used in developing prosecutions, and 4,668returned to their owners. Keeping track of all this propertyhowever, is only one of their responsibilities.Collection of physical evidence and bail money at thedistrict stations on a daily basis, takes up a lot of OfficerMike O'Brien's time. As you can imagine, thevehicle used in this daily routine is a department reject,often not suited to the task in hand. On the average,one hundred items per day are collected, time stampedand logged into the office. In addition to Mike's otherresponsibilities, the inventory and destruction of allfirearms as required by the Penal Code, is an ongoingtask.Under San Francisco Charter Section 3.537 the Chiefof Police has the power to, by regulation, provide forthe sale at public action of unclaimed property. Thesenior officer of the Property Clerk's Office, LarrySheerin, has the responsibility of auctioning appropriateitems at six to eight week intervals, nettingthe city's General Fund tens of thousands of dollars peryear.Officer Grey Ovanessian has what amounts to approximatelya two year backlog of inventory clearance.By law, each and every piece of property havingsomething to do with a criminal case, must be"cleared" by the officers involved prior to disposal. Ona monthly basis, Greg sends a list of incident casenumbers to the commanding officers of district stations,investigative bureaus, and units in hopes oftracking down officers for their approval of disposition.As you all know, Bill Cane has long been in charge ofdispensing uniforms and equipment to the department'spersonnel. Space for the storage of all this property,let alone keeping track of who gets what and howoften, should require the use of a computor. Don'tforget that all new recruits must also be fully outfittedon a continual basis. Brown paper bags with names andstar numbers can often be seen lined up and waiting fornew officers to pick up. A lack of storage space findsexcess equipment hanging in several areas throughoutthe facility.Station supplies are also handled by the propertyclerk. Overcrowding of supplies has rendered theloading dock virtually useless due to the area's use asstorage space. All bicycles and car parts are stored in apiecemeal fashion wherever space is available. Freezingcompartments are now to the point of overflowing inrape and other cases where evidence is perishable.Inspectors, police officers and crime lab personnelare in constant need of examining property. The requirementsof an evidentury "chain of custody" requirethat property clerk personnel service and document allrequests of property. in addition, the routine counterservice and answering of phone calls tends to filleveryone's day. Last but not least, special events requiringbarriers, ropes, etc. are also provided by the propertyclerk's staff. Marita Johnson is the clerk/typist forthe unit and Dennis Lok has the unenviable task ofrepairing the department's typewriters.Others I haven't mentioned including SergeantWalter Watson, Officers Robert Muiry, DennisNewcomer, Kelvin Woo and civilians Joseph Dito,Albert DeLuca and Americo "Ricco" Fisher, all performtheir duties without the prospect of ever receivingovertime allotted to them.The Property Clerk's office, given the best of circumstances,performs an incredible task. If you stop tothink about it a moment, these fourteen people deservea lot of recognition for a tremendous job done underless than ideal conditions.Photos by Gale WrightThe "tip of the iceberg" most people think of as theProperty Clerk's Office.Thousands of criminal prosecutions depend upon thephysical evidence stored on these racks.Property Clerk's staff (from left to right) MonitaJohnson (Clerk/Typist), Americo Fisher (Storekeeper),Lieutenant Joseph Mangan, Albert DeLuca(Storekeeper), Dennis Lok (Typewriter Repafrman),Officer Greg Ovanessian and Joseph Ditto(Storekeeper).Loading dock with overhead crane is rendered uselessbecause supply and equipment overflow.LIBERAL GUN SHOP77 SIXTH STREET(Bet. Market 8 Mission)SAN FRANCISCO391-1947A tree stump, an ax, and sledge hammer are the toolswith which Officer Mike O'Brien destroys firearmshéaded'forthfoünd.