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Council adopts ordinance allowing police to retain abandoned property for city use instead of auction
Summary
An ordinance gives the police department an alternative to public auction for certain abandoned property, allowing the department to retain items for law-enforcement use when appropriate; a computer was cited as an example of potentially useful property.
The Common Council approved an ordinance creating an alternative means of disposal for abandoned property the police department takes into custody, giving staff an option other than immediate public auction.
Council members said the change is intended to allow the police to retain items that are useful for law-enforcement purposes rather than converting them to cash at auction. “A good example in this case would be a computer,” an alderman said, noting that retaining a powerful computer for internal use could be more useful than selling it and buying a replacement later.
A motion to approve the ordinance passed on a voice vote; no specific inventory rules or thresholds were discussed at length in the recorded dialogue, and the council asked that use of retained property be consistent with accountability practices.
