When evidence is from a non-Army law enforcement agency, the person who first
receives it will prepare a DA Form 4137. He or she will also prepare DA Form 4002
(or equivalent) and mark the evidence for identification if the other agency has
not already done so. Receipts or chain of custody documents furnished by the other
agency will be attached to the DA Form 4137.
Physical evidence, accompanied by the original DA Form 4137 and at least the first
and second copies, should be released to the evidence custodian as soon as
possible.
Except in unusual cases, physical evidence will be released to the
evidence custodian not later than the first working day after it is acquired.
Evidence acquired during nonduty hours will be secured in a temporary container.
It will be controlled by the MPI duty investigator or MP desk sergeant pending
release to the evidence custodian.
Processing Physical Evidence
When the evidence custodian receives the evidence and DA Form 4137, he follows a
procedure for processing.
First, he checks the DA Form 4137 submitted with the
evidence and ensures that errors are corrected, when possible. Next, he assigns a
document number. This document number consists of two groups of digits, separated
by a hyphen. The first group is the number of the document. Begin with the number
"1" for the first DA Form 4137 received for the calendar year.
The second group
stands for the current calendar year.
Thus, the document number supporting this
example would be 1-87. The document number will be shown on all copies of DA Form
4137 and DA Form 4002.
After assigning a document number, the evidence custodian distributes DA Form 4137
(except the receipt copy). This is done after the chain of custody is complete and
all copies of the form are assigned a document number.
The evidence custodian
keeps the original and first copy of DA Form 4137. The second copy will be given
to the MP to be placed in the proper case file. The evidence custodian then writes
with pencil the location of the evidence on the bottom margin of DA Form 4137. The
evidence custodian will keep the location of evidence within the evidence room
current by erasing the previous entry and noting the new location.
Finally, he
organizes DA Forms 4137 in number sequence. The forms will be kept in a folder no
thicker than 3/4 inch or not more than 50 documents per folder.
The number and
year of the documents in the folder will be shown on the outside (such as 1-50
1987).
The evidence ledger provides accountability through cross-reference with the DA
Form 4137.
It accounts for document numbers assigned to the DA Forms 4137.
Evidence ledgers must be bound record books and will follow the disposition
schedule set by AR 340-18-5. The ledger will be destroyed three years after *final
disposition is made of all items entered in it.
The cover of the ledger should identify the
organization or activity responsible
for the evidence room and the dates spanned
by the entries.
A ledger book will
normally be completely filled before starting
a new one. In larger offices, if the
number of entries nearly fills a ledger, the
remaining pages need not be used for
the next year and a new ledger may be opened.
1-23
MP2004
Previous Page
