Q: How does the Brookhaven Police Department handle confiscated drugs?

A: The Brookhaven Police Department does not hold drugs, according to Police Chief Bobby Bell. At most, illegal drugs that BPD officers have confiscated during the commission of a crime by suspects may stay in the evidence room overnight before the drugs are transported to the narcotics task force.

“We don’t handle any drugs in my station,” Bell said. “We call our local narcotics task force in, and they handle all our drug cases for us and they confiscate the drugs at that time.”

Once the drugs are no longer needed as evidence, they are destroyed.

But the legal process can take several years, he said. Evidence is kept for at least five years after a case is closed. The department must also wait for a defendant to run out of appeals before any evidence in a case is discarded, he said. Having the space to keep all the evidence they collect for cases organized and easily-accessible are some of the reasons the police department moved to its current location on Hwy. 51, Bell said.

“In our new building, we have a nice sized evidence room,” the chief said.