Return of Property - NYPD

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Property Clerk

Towed Vehicles

Police Auction

Motor Vehicle Collisions Reports

Non-Injury Vehicle Collisions

FAQs for Critical / Fatal Injury Collisions


Return of Property (Other than a Vehicle)

Below are instructions for retrieving property, other than a vehicle, from the NYPD Property Clerk.

1. Retain and safeguard your copy of the property voucher.

2. As the property owner, appear in person at the Property Clerk's office in the borough where the property was taken. You may have an authorized representative make a claim for the property. Your representative must have a notarized letter from you, the owner of the property, identifying the individual whom you are authorizing to act as your representative and identifying the specific property to be claimed.

3. You must present the following to claim your property:

An Invoice Number

Proper Identification

District attorney's release or a supervising district attorney's statement refusing to grant a release

NOTE: If the vouchered property is NOT Arrest Evidence, a district attorney's release is NOT REQUIRED.

4. Claim your property as soon as possible.

5. If property was arrest evidence, you must demand the property no later than 120 days after the termination of the criminal proceedings. If no demand is made, the property may be disposed of by the Police Department Property Clerk according to law.

6. If property is not arrest evidence, a demand should be made as soon as possible whether or not criminal proceedings have been instituted, and, if they have been instituted, at any time, whether or not such proceedings have been terminated. It is important that the demand be made for this property before 120 days from the day it is vouchered, or the property may be disposed of by the Police Department Property Clerk according to law.

7. If a demand is made for property which is arrest evidence, and there is no district attorney's release or a supervising district attorney's statement refusing to grant a release, the claimant has 270 days from the demand to obtain a district attorney's release or a supervising district attorney's statement refusing to grant a release. If a release or a statement refusing to grant a release is not provided to the Property Clerk within 270 days of the demand, the property may be disposed of according to law.

8. If, in a timely manner, the claimant provides the Property Clerk with a district attorney's statement refusing to grant a release, the claimant must, when the district attorney no longer needs the property, obtain and submit to the Police Department a district attorney's release.

9. Forms to request a district attorney's release and/or other forms regarding the release may be obtained at a district attorney's office in any of the five boroughs. The district attorney's release or supervising district attorney's refusal to grant a release must be obtained from the district attorney's office where the criminal case is being prosecuted.

10. If you have any questions, please call your respective Property Clerk Section's Borough Property Office.

Manhattan Property Office 646-610-5906

Bronx Property Clerk 718-681-1379

Brooklyn Property Clerk 718-624-5364

Queens Property Clerk 718-433-2678

Staten Island Property Clerk 718-876-8413