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SALT LAKE CITY — A civilian employee who worked in the Salt Lake City Police Department's evidence room is under criminal investigation for allegedly being high at work.
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said Friday there was no indication that any evidence had been tampered with, or that any of the employee's drugs were obtained from the evidence room. However, in order to make sure none of the evidence currently stored within the department has been compromised, and in order to preserve the integrity of the cases, Gill said all 200,000 pieces of evidence within the department will be reviewed.
Neither Gill nor Salt Lake Police Chief Mike Brown identified the woman on Friday or how long she had worked there. They said the woman no longer works for the department but wouldn't say whether she quit or was fired.
Brown said the investigation began Aug. 15 when a supervisor noticed the employee "exhibiting very unusual behavior” at work. The woman was immediately placed on administrative leave and a drug test was ordered that day, he said. That test came back positive, Brown said. Police would not say Friday which drugs the employee tested positive for.
Brown said once that was discovered, his department "took very, very aggressive measures” in dealing with it. An internal investigation was launched and the employee no longer with the department, Brown said.
Now, as Gill considers potential criminal charges against the woman, his office also has to make sure no pieces of evidence were compromised. To do that, he said investigators will break it down into phases. They will look at evidence that the employee was known to have direct contact with, then look at the estimated 40,000 pieces of drug-related evidence in storage, followed by the remaining pieces of evidence.
Gill said detectives will look at whether the bags, paper sacks and other packaging items that are typically used to store evidence — and which are always sealed — have been tampered with. If so, those pieces of evidence will be more thoroughly inspected in a second phase.
Gill said every piece of evidence must be looked at to make sure it has not been tampered with.
"We cannot allow any piece of evidence to go forward that will compromise the integrity of an investigation," he said, while also adding there was "no reason to believe any evidence has been tampered with so far."
Brown said Friday that going through every piece of evidence could take from six months to two years.
Brown said all employees, whether they are sworn officers or employees, are screened before being hired, including given a drug test.
The incident comes as the Salt Lake Police Department is still dealing with public backlash over how it handled an incident involving a detective and his supervising lieutenant involved in the controversial arrest of University Hospital nurse Alex Wubbels. The two officers weren't placed on administrative leave until more than a month after the arrest when the nurse released body camera video of the incident and there was significant public outcry.
"We are standing here today in the interest of transparency," Brown said Friday.
"It’s one more thing that we will overcome. Right now, there are great women and men doing fantastic work. Ethical, with integrity. This is, again, an outlier," the chief said. "We will become a better organization with what we learn."
