Rebecca Otto on Crime

Establish security practices for crime evidence

Rebecca Otto learned that the Strike Force had no internal controls for their seized property. They didn't even have a lock on the door of their property and evidence room. Without a set of policies and procedures for managing their property and evidences rooms, the chain of custody of evidence can be called into question, and bad guys could go free, while innocents could go to jail.

Rebecca decided to survey the hundreds of other law enforcement agencies in Minnesota about their property and evidence rooms in order to develop a best practices review for their use. She produced a landmark report on best practices in property and evidence rooms that has since become a well-used guide.

Shut down traffic ticket diversions with alternative penalty

Under Rebecca's leadership, a special review highlighted how and why the programs were not in compliance with existing Minnesota law, and illustrated some of the financial and safety problems they posed.

The small number of police and county sheriff departments that were using the programs liked the money they generated and argued that the State Auditor was wrong and that the law was ambiguous, but in 2014 a judge agreed with Rebecca's position and ruled that the programs were not authorized by state law. As a result, most of the programs have been shut down.