BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
The FDLE investigation launched into the management of the former Starke Police Department is over, concluding that thousands of missing evidence items were likely destroyed.
A year ago, Starke commissioners turned law enforcement over to Bradford County Sheriff Gordon Smith, who upon seeing the state of the evidence tracking and record keeping, called in the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
An audit of evidence and records is not unusual during such a transition, but what Smith said his employees saw sparked panic. A few weeks later, FDLE confirmed 2,560 of 4,012 items could not be located in the SPD evidence vault.
“They were stunned, as I was,” Smith said of FDLE’s team.
One FDLE investigator called the vault “haphazard” and “one of the most disorganized evidence vaults he has encountered.” There were items without case numbers or descriptions in addition to the missing evidence and no offsite locations where evidence would have been stored.
“It was in disarray, the same thing we encountered,” said Smith, adding that when he served as police chief, the evidence vault was audited and organized as they were working toward accreditation.
Poor management and a lot of employee turnover is how the sheriff summarized what the department had become when the city commission closed it in a cost cutting move and turned law enforcement over to him.
FDLE interviewed 11 current and former employees, revealing multiple organizational issues. The high turnover rate contributed to insufficient training and knowledge about organizing and storing evidence.
“There was a lot of turn over. It never really stayed in one person’s care,” Smith said, although the sheriff’s office tried to assist, sharing its Smart Cop software access to document and track evidence.
“According to witness statements, BCSO and SPD initially maintained proper communication pertaining to permissions and technical authoritative designations for the evidence custodian,” the report states. “However, due to the high rate of turnover within the SPD, this communication and necessary software functionality diminished over time. The diminished operability, in addition to lack of technical training within SPD led to gross oversight within SPD’s evidence management system.”
Multiple witnesses were able to confirm the large-scale destruction of evidence through a third-party vendor in 2022. However, the SPD employee preparing evidence for destruction had received minimal training for the position. He told investigators he assumed evidence marked TBD meant it was “to be destroyed.” FDLE determined that that classification was unrelated to destruction. According to the sheriff, it meant the evidence should be held while its future was “to be determined.”
Nevertheless, the evidence was destroyed, and the employee lacked the technical authority to reclassify items as destroyed within the software system. He said he kept the log in binders within the vault, but those binders were never located.
FDLE concluded it was highly probable that most of the evidence missing from the vault had been destroyed. Unable to determine a crime was committed, the case was closed.
“They interviewed people didn’t find any criminal wrongdoing, other than basically mismanagement, lack of education, lack of training, those type issues,” Smith said.
Additional information about management in general can be gleaned from the interviews, including supervisory role of Jeff Johnson, who served as police chief during the investigated period, 2010 to 2024. Drew Mullins, who continues to serve a management role in the city, said Johnson chose not to use an office at the police station, preferring to work from home. Another interviewee said Johnson was not present in the office on a regular basis, appearing once or twice a month.
Another interview revealed that SPD files that potentially included evidence were destroyed during a local burn of records from the clerk’s office in 2011. The clerk’s office carried out a formal process to destroy physical records that had been digitized. According to the employee, Johnson arrived at the burn with boxes of SPD files that were thrown into the fire, according to the employee. When interviewed, Johnson said these boxes included outdated forms, field conduct cards, etc.
Johnson attributed the high employee turnover in his department to low salaries. He also said there was insufficient time and resources to conduct evidence audits each time a new evidence custodian was assigned.
At the conclusion of Smith’s report to the city commission, commissioners thanked him and his staff for their work for the city.
“I think the decision to consolidate was done in the best interest of our citizens and for our public safety, and you guys are doing a stellar job,” Commissioner Janice Mortimer said. “You restored the integrity back to law enforcement within the city of Starke, and that’s greatly appreciated.”
“This does reaffirm that we made the right decision to move forward with you guys,” Mayor Andy Redding agreed. “Unfortunately, the police department had significant management issues, I think, some potential ethical issues and just a lack of responsibility to our citizens.”
He said he wanted city staff to continue investigating what happened to other valuable property missing from the department that has not been accounted for. City auditors are also performing a forensic audit.
