Property & Evidence Office
Law Enforcement Center
221 Breckenridge St., Helena, MT 59602
Public Hours are (by appointment only):
Monday - Friday: 9 am – 4 pm
Closed daily from Noon – 1pm and all County Holidays
Contact:
Office: (406) 447-8250
Admin: (406) 447-8235
Fax: (406) 449-8452
Email: LCSO Evidence
Check our Found Property Webpage
to locate your lost property
Topic of Interest: (click on topic to go there)
- Background of P&E Office
- Evidence
- Money
- Property Seized for Safekeeping
- Prisoner Property
- Found Property
- Procedures for Claiming your Property
- Procedures for Claiming your Vehicle
Contact: (Click on topic)
Mission Statement:
To secure and maintain the integrity of evidence and property for the Lewis & Clark County Sheriff's Office, community and partnering agencies until disposition under the laws and ordinances of the State of Montana.
Criminal Investigations (CIB)
Investigations Supervisor: Sgt. Dave Peterson - (406) 447-8244
Investigator: Cory Olson - (406) 447-8242
VAWA Investigator: Joani Tompkins - (406) 447-8245
Evidence Technician Chad Day- (406) 447-8250
Background
The Property Evidence office, a division of the Criminal Investigations Bureau (CIB), receives and maintains over 2,000 property and evidence items per year – everything from trace evidence to vehicles. CIB maintains three separate facilities for the storage of these items.
Services Provided
- Receiving, processing, and storing of property and evidence.
- Identification and return of evidence and property to rightful owners.
- Provide access to evidence for any prosecuting or defense attorneys.
- Store vehicles that are impounded, maintained as evidence, or held for forfeiture.
Information on the procedures for claiming property and vehicles is listed below. Please read the information carefully and follow these instructions to retrieve your property or vehicle:
Evidence:
Non-contraband property seized by members of the Lewis & Clark County Sheriff’s Office as evidence will be available for return to the owner after CIB has received confirmation and authorization from the County Attorney’s office that the items(s) are no longer needed as evidence.
Money:
Money held as evidence in amounts equal to or greater then $100.00 will be returned by check with a usual processing time of three weeks. Amounts of less than $100.00 may be released in cash.
Property seized for Safekeeping:
All safekeeping property may be retrieved by the owner after CIB has received confirmation and authorization from the County Attorney’s office that the items(s) are no longer needed or it will be disposed of as provided by MCA 46.5.306 and 46.5.309.
Prisoner Property
The majority of personal property on a person at the time they are booked into the Lewis & Clark Detention Center is retained by the Detention Center staff for safekeeping while the individual is incarcerated. In some cases, property may be seized by the Deputy if it has evidentuary value to the case.
If it is entered into the Property and Evidence office for safekeeping and is not held as evidence in their case it will be stored until the owner/arrestee is released from detention. The property must be retrieved within 10 days from the date of their release or it will be disposed of as provided by MCA 46.5.305, 46.5.306 and 46.5.309.
Found Property
Found property with no owner listed is only held for 180 days. When Found Property is seized, an Classified Lost and Found advertisement will be placed in the Helena Independent Record.
To understand the regulations governing evidence and property, please review the following Montana Code Annotated:
MCA 46.5.305 Disposition of Unclaimed and Found Personal Property
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