The purge review form should also be marked by the detective as to whether or not a card has been sent to the owner, and if so, the date. It should include check boxes to dispose of all property or to retain all property, and spaces to differentiate if part of the items can be released. Reasons for retaining property should be listed, or check boxes could give the detective the option of case pending, warrant issued, civil case, or other. The detective should have to sign each of the forms for accountability purposes. Departments that implement this type of purging system and rigidly enforce the guidelines usually will find a majority of their property is signed off for release or disposal on the first round, which is usually within six months or a year.
Any computer needs to be programmed to allow future review dates also.
If it is no longer needed, the Property Unit must be notified to release and dispose of the property on the case. Included in the review dates for cases with convictions should be any statutory appeal time after the case has been adjudicated. However a number of cases are never prosecuted, and therefore the detective never gets case disposition information from the court. In such cases, the detective needs to evaluate the need to retain the evidence any longer than necessary. The detective only has to return the forms on those tags where evidence is being retained.