The text provides general guidelines that police agencies can adapt to the circumstances of their own property rooms. The first chapter details management and organizational issues, including legal aspects, staffing, training, written policies and procedures, and the property manual. The next chapter discusses the design and layout of the property room, alternative approaches, typical storage systems, and layout systems. The third chapter focuses on security issues, including structural standards; alarms, access, and safety; and the classification and storage of property. Further chapters examine automation and computerization, audits and inventories, internal controls, documentation and packaging, narcotics records and forms, the handling of specific types of evidence such as currency and narcotics, housekeeping, and disposition and purging. Figures, photographs, forms, glossary, appended outline of property manual elements and list of vendors, and 29 references