Mount Pleasant Town Hall Magazine

45 www.MountPleasantMagazine.com | www.ILoveMountPleasant.com | www.MPTownHall.com MOUNT PLEASANT Town Hall Team members couldn’t start loading again until she returned. “With Alyson gone, there was no one loading in the old evidence room,” Horton explained. Not only is the new evidence room nearly twice the size of the old one, but its roomy shelves slide on tracks, providing additional storage space. As was always the case, everyone who enters the evidence room must sign in and out, and they must be accompanied by a member of the team. Cameras, set up to “watch the watchers,” according to Horton, provide a record of everyone who passes through the security door. Horton pointed out that an outside auditor comes in four times a year “to make sure nothing is missing and to make sure we are following policies and procedures.” The Mount Pleasant Police Department completes an internal audit every year, and the guns and drugs stored in the evidence room are inventoried semi-annually. Horton noted that the evidence in the long-term storage room must be maintained in case a conviction is appealed or new evidence in a case comes to light. The 790 items in the long-term room account for 36 cases, most of them homicides and armed robberies. Some of the information dates back to 1992, when local law enforcement officers captured an accused serial rapist. Horton said the Police Department is required to keep evidence until the perpetrator’s term of incarceration is completed. If a person pleads guilty to a crime, the evidence must be maintained for at least seven years. Horton said the Mount Pleasant Police Department has evidence from a 2014 homicide case that must be stored until the year 2046. A 27-year veteran of the Mount Pleasant Police Department, Horton apparently has found his law enforcement niche: investigating crimes, gathering evidence and, hopefully, putting the bad guys behind bars. “I love this job,” he said. “It’s like putting together a puzzle. You find the bad guy through evidence. We may not get the actual truth from witnesses, but evidence cannot lie.” Sgt. Greg Horton and Officers Bobby Farrell, Angie Mitchell and Alyson Kinder are responsible for gathering that evidence and making sure it’s available, when needed, to present in a courtroom. TH Angie Mitchell, Alyson Kinder and Bobby Farrell unload boxes of evidence at Mount Pleasant’s new Town Hall. Greg Horton transfers boxes of evidence into a U-Haul truck.