To: Board of Supervisors
From: Sheriff
Agenda Section: Consent
SUBJECT:
title
Authorize the Auditor Controller to Create a Trust Account as a Temporary Holding Account for Property/Evidence currency for the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO)
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RECOMMENDATION(S):
Recommendation
That the Board of Supervisors:
1. Authorize the Auditor Controller to create a dedicated, non-interest bearing trust account for the HCSO Property/Evidence unit as a temporary holding account to deposit currency that is stored for found property, held for safekeeping, or seized for evidence until such time that the funds may be released back to the owner(s), ordered released by the Court or determined to be unclaimed and transferred in accordance with applicable law.
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SOURCE OF FUNDING:
Found property, safekeeping, and evidence currency
DISCUSSION:
Historically currency that is stored as found property, held for safekeeping, or seized as evidence has been booked into the HCSO’s property/evidence division and retained in a safe until the funds can be released back to the owner(s), ordered released by the Court or until the funds are determined unclaimed and deposited to the county general fund in accordance with Civil Code 2080.4 and Humboldt County Ordinance 280.1-280.6.
Best practices in law enforcement according to the Peace Officer Standards and Training Board (POST) recommends that all money booked into property/evidence should be initially held in a safe for processing and then deposited to a dedicated temporary holding account as soon as reasonable. Money exempt from deposit, that may be stored in the safe at the Evidence/Property facility include: counterfeit money, cash or coin which is considered to be worth more than its face value (collector’s items), or monies that are determined to have forensic evidentiary value.
HCSO is requesting a dedicated non-interest-bearing trust account so that it may align its Policies and Procedures with POST recommended best practices. HCSO has been unable to find any government code that requires that the funds be held be in an interest-bearing account. It is HCSO’s preference that the fund be non-interest bearing to avoid having to perform calculations to determine how much interest is earned on each deposit.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
There is no financial impact change with this request. The currency would be deposited to the county treasury and accounted for in the non-interest-bearing dedicated trust fund versus being retained in a safe.
STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK:
This action supports your Board’s Strategic Framework by providing community-appropriate levels of service .
OTHER AGENCY INVOLVEMENT:
None
ALTERNATIVES TO STAFF RECOMMENDATIONS:
The Board may deny this request to open the dedicated trust. This is not recommended as POST best practices recommend the funds be deposited to a dedicated temporary holding account.
ATTACHMENTS:
None.
PREVIOUS ACTION/REFERRAL:
Board Order No.: N/A
Meeting of: N/A
File No.: N/A