Exhibits Officer
Definition
The designated person responsible for the physical security of all exhibits in a case. They receive items from collecting officers, log them into the exhibit register, store them correctly, and manage all transfers to laboratories or courts.
- Responsibility
- Physical security of all exhibits in a case
- Duties
- Receives, logs, stores, and transfers exhibits
- Interfaces with
- Collecting officers, laboratories, courts
- Related record
- Exhibit register
Common questions
Why is a dedicated exhibits officer role needed instead of letting collecting officers manage storage themselves?+
Centralising custody with one designated role reduces the number of people who handle an item and creates a single accountable point for storage conditions and transfer records, which strengthens the chain of custody against challenge.
What is the exhibits officer's role once an item goes to a laboratory?+
They record the transfer out to the laboratory and later the return, maintaining the register entry so the chain of custody remains unbroken even while the item is outside their direct physical control.
Related terms
- Admissibility
- Whether a piece of evidence is permitted to be placed before the fact-finder at all. Admissibility is a threshold question, decided by...
- Chain of Custody
- The documented chronological record of who collected, handled, transferred, and examined a piece of evidence. For digital evidence, chain of custody includes...
- Continuity
- The property of an exhibit record that shows it passed from one documented custodian directly to the next with no unexplained gap....
- Exhibit Register
- The master log, maintained by the property or exhibits officer, showing every exhibit in a case, its reference number, current location, and...
- Tamper-Evident Seal
- A physical barrier (tape, sticker, wax) applied to packaging that shows visible damage if the package has been opened after sealing. Courts...