FBI agents in every region of the country have mishandled, mislabeled and lost evidence, according to an internal investigation that discovered errors with nearly half the pieces of evidence it reviewed.
The evidence collection and retention system is the backbone of the FBI's investigative process, and the report said it is beset by problems. It also found that the FBI was storing more weapons, less money and valuables, and 2 tons more drugs than its records had indicated.
The report's findings, based on a review of more than 41,000 pieces of evidence in FBI offices around the country, could have consequences for criminal investigations and prosecutions. Lawyers can use even minor record-keeping discrepancies to get evidence thrown out of court, and the FBI was alerting prosecutors Friday that they may need to disclose the errors to defendants.
Many of the problems cited in the report appeared to be hiccups in the FBI's transition to a computer system known as Sentinel, which went online in 2012 and was intended to move the bureau away from a case-management system based on paper files. But other problems, including materials that disappeared or were taken from FBI evidence rooms and not returned, are more serious.
"A majority of the errors identified were due in large part to human error, attributable to a lack of training and program management oversight," auditors wrote in the report, which was obtained by The New York Times.
In a written statement, the bureau said the review had "yielded several valuable proposals to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the FBI's corporate tracking system for evidence, and the FBI is currently in the process of implementing same."
The FBI is separately dealing with the fallout from a case at its Washington office, where an agent is under investigation for tampering with evidence. That has led to the dismissal of convictions in some drug cases. Although the internal review is unrelated to that matter, the issues are so entwined that the FBI plans to distribute the report to dozens of lawyers involved whose cases were affected by the Washington investigation, officials said.
The errors cited in the audit range in severity from computer glitches and duplicate bar codes to evidence that could not be located. The investigation found that federal agents had removed 1,600 pieces of evidence from storage and had not returned them for more than four months. One piece of evidence in a drug case has been signed out since 2003. Another piece of evidence has been out since 2006, the report found.
Because the audit was based on a sample, the actual number of items that have been checked out and not returned is probably much higher. One FBI official said the bureau was considering whether to conduct a broader review that would cover all drug evidence held by the FBI.
The results also varied by field office. In Newark, Del.; Honolulu; Milwaukee; Washington; and Richmond, Va., for instance, auditors found problems with the handling of more than 70 percent of firearms in evidence.
By comparison, offices in El Paso, Texas; New Haven, Conn.; and Sacramento, Calif., turned up error rates in the single digits.
When Sentinel went online, the bureau said it would streamline investigations and make it easier for analysts and agents to "link cases with similar information through expanded search capabilities." It was also supposed to make information more quickly available to investigators in different field offices.
A report released in September by the Department of Justice inspector general found that Sentinel had reduced the number of lost documents and made it easier to share information. That inquiry, however, cited problems with Sentinel's search function.
A Section on 12/20/2014