NYPD Warehouses Filled with Evidence, Guns & Drugs Destroyed

The NYPD stores much of its criminal evidence, guns, and drugs in warehouses until it is needed in court. According to the NY Times, two of the five warehouses in Brooklyn were flooded by Sandy, destroying hundreds maybe thousands of barrels of evidence for upcoming trials and criminal cases. In recent weeks, at least six criminal trials requested evidence that police testified was “inaccessible but still existed.”

The US Justice Dept recently gave NYPD $1.25 million to organize evidence. Retired property division officer, John W. Cassidy, told how the evidence was unorganized and often lost before the damage from the storm. Although the NYPD has assigned a 20 officer and 6 civilian team to clean up and sort through the raw sewage coated evidence bags, they have no plans to reopen the warehouses. Instead, they plan to open one central warehouse, consolidating the three remaining and the two destroyed.

So if you have a pending court date in New York in a trial that hinges on evidence, keep your fingers crossed.