In the basement of the Lewiston Police Department, a long hallway leads to a door marked “Authorized Personnel Only.”
“Our conversations are being recorded, both audio and video,” warned Lt. Mark Cornelio as he led the way to the police department’s evidence room.
As soon as Property and Evidence Manager Ivan Boudreau unlocked the door, the powerful smell of marijuana wafted into the hallway.
“All of the confiscated drugs and money are locked up there,” said Boudreau pointing to a cage-like back area.
Hanging from the walls were weapons of all types. There were brass knuckles, butterfly knives, swords, a homemade mace, and a variety of weapons that appeared to be hand guns.
They were not.
“These are all b.b. guns,” said Boudreau. “I keep them around so when I have tours from the high school I can impress upon them how dangerous it is to carry this stuff. A police officer won’t know it’s real in that spilt second he or she has to decide to use deadly force or not.”
Lining two walkways in the room, were neatly numbered shelves containing anything from cigarettes, clothes, a hammer and car stereos to laptops, DVDs and the occasional bottle of liquor.
After the police recover or confiscate the property, maybe from a burglary, an assault, or a minor offense, they log it into the computer system, label it and place it in a specific spot on the shelves with corresponding locator information.
And the evidence area is purged monthly, after cases are closed and the police get the okay from the courts to either return stolen property or dispose of evidence.
Since the first of the year, $250,000 in street-value drugs have been incinerated in Auburn as the police watched.
They also take the guns to a foundary in Auburn where they are disposed of that — also in the presence of the police.
“Every item has a story,” said Boudreau, as he opened a cabinet where the actual guns are stored.
Boudreau takes his job very seriously.
“Everyone must sign the log,” he said.
“We’re responsible for people’s stolen property and we want to make sure it gets back to them,” added Cornelio.
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- Ivan Boudreau, Property and Evidence Manager at the Lewiston Police Department, shows a homemade weapon that he has retained for training purposes in the evidence room located in the basement of the Park Street building. The other weapons on the wall are bb guns made to look like actual firearms he keeps to show younger kids on tour through the building the dangers of carrying those types of bb guns.
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- Weapons used in open cases hang on the wall in the evidence room at the Lewiston Police Department. The storage area is purged monthly, and any gun are taken to a place in Auburn and chopped up while the police watch.
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- Lt. Mark Cornelio looks through old parking tickets believed to be unpaid in the records room of the Lewiston Police Department. There were tickets in the drawers that dated back to 1988.
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- The weight room in the basement of the Lewiston Police Department is stocked with equipment purchased by the union and is available to all employees of the department and their families.
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- Lt. Mark Cornelio demonstrates one way how a police TASER works in the issue room of the Lewiston Police Department. Only two road officers and a sergeant carry TASERs on each shift.
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- Lt. Mark Cornelio signs the log book in the evidence room in the basement of Lewiston Police Department. Everyone who enters the room must sign the log and there is also a video and audio recording of the room and hallway.
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- The police department is required by the Maine State Archivist to keep homicide records indefinitely, criminal cases – open and closed – plus arrest records until the person is 80, and then can only be destroyed if there is no communication with the subject for another 5 years, any record on a fatal accident for 15 years and non-fatal accidents for 25 years. Because of these guidelines, there are microfiche in a secondary records room that date back to 1948 and there are booking sheets older than the films.
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- Any 911 call that a Lewiston Police officer responded to must have a report filed on them and the records must be retained for a certain number of years, thus the records room of the department is filed with paperwork. Now, most records are computerized and back-ups are made of those files.
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