Are Police Officers' Uniforms Inventoried?

What do you mean by inventoried? Do you mean issued to them and then they are responsible for it? That would be more military than police.

Police are given an uniform allowance and they are responsible for getting everything on the uniform list. There is a yearly inspection by a supervisor to see if any thing is damaged (the term used is unserviceable) and it must be replaced. Though it's wise to replace it before the inspection.

The only thing taken back when an officer is killed is the weapon, shield, and ID card.

I hope this helps.

Agree with TJ the only thing I'd add is what State or even County? depends on what you need for your story but some counties have a list of approved firearms that the officer provides himself. In this instance it would be the property of his NOK.

next of kin

Bearing in mind that it'll depend upon the individual agency/department, items subject to wear & tear (clothing, etc.) are generally not considered accountable property. Such material would typically be subject to periodic inspections, standards compliance, and repair/replacement as warranted.

Items issued by the agency/department that bear traceable serial numbers are almost always considered accountable property; and as such, are subject to periodic inventory and must be returned to the agency/department upon termination of employment (for any reason).

Service weapon(s), badge, and credentials would definitely fall into the accountable property category.

For your story, the missing badge and gun would be traceable via serial numbers; and, would be immediately entered as stolen property in both state and federal databases.

morrighan said:

Thank you so much.

Would such information (missing gun and badge) be released to the public? If not, can the information be discovered by a persistent reporter on his own or only through a public or press liaison person?

Click to expand...

It depends. If the agency thinks there is a benefit to them to release the info that the murdered officer's gun and badge were stolen, they would release the info.

If you want them to hold back the info you could justify it as one of those details that are not released so that if someone contacts them about the crime, or confesses, and they DON'T know about the stolen gun and badge, then the tip is likely no good/they aren't the real killer, etc.

A badge and gun that are stolen when an officer is murdered isn't going to embarrass the department like an officer just plain losing his gun and badge. (Like leaving the gun in a bathroom, or leaving them behind at a strip club, both of which have happened). Those are the types of things the departments try to downplay or cover up entirely.

As to "what can the reporter find out." How good is the reporter? Do they have sources or friends in the police department? A good reporter should have sources that would know this kind of thing and who might leak it to the reporter. These could include officers involved in the investigation, other cops or civilian employees who heard it in the rumor mill and passed the gossip along, or even someone who was at the scene, like a paramedic or ME assistant, or funeral home employee their to pick up the body, who heard the cops talking about it.

If the reporter in your story only knows what the police agency's PR person tells them, they aren't a very good reporter. There's more to reporting than rewriting press releases and just finding out stuff from official spokespeople.

Adding to what Iron Mike Zero said...

Radio, keys to department and squad cars, usually the duty belt and all leather gear on that belt and any the body armor are items the dept would want to get ahold of.

In addition many times officer who are on special teams will have some equipment at home for emergency call out. So SWAT gear or some CSI gear might be at the officer's home so they can respond at any time to a call when off-duty. The dept will want that back, but will wait a few days to ask about getting it back.