The city of Mesa has opened a new 33,000-square-foot facility that it will use to store evidence from police investigations.
Current records retention laws require police to hold on to evidence from certain cases, including homicides, sexual assaults and missing persons, for at least 55 years. The new facility is expected to meet Mesa’s demand for the next 20 years.
"Sometimes court cases take 5, 10, 15 years. A lot of people don’t understand, we keep things up here for up to 55 years just for evidence storage. So it’s critical for our department, critical for our community," said Mesa Police Chief Ken Cost.
The Police Property Building was primarily funded through voter-approved bonds.
