From the Mountain Xpress (5/21/12): On May 11, the Asheville Police Department's new chief, William Anderson, met with reporters to announce that the APD will hire a new evidence-room manager as part of a "healing process." It's been more than a year since news of missing guns, drugs and money wounded the department's reputation.
Anderson, who started the job March 1, acknowledged that “this has been a black eye for the city, this has been a black eye for the department.” He said that no one presently working at the APD is under investigation in the matter, but declined to comment on whether any former employees are suspected of pilfering evidence.
Currently, a police sergeant and six other officers oversee a temporary evidence room while the old one is being investigated, Anderson said. The nationwide search for an experienced manager, who will be a civilian employee, will take three to four months, he said.
The personnel move is unlikely to quell critics who are pushing for the release of an extensive audit of the evidence room that was commissioned by City Council last April. It remains secreted away by Buncombe County District Attorney Ron Moore, who has ignored some media requests for the report and effectively denied others.
Anderson said that while he has been briefed by Moore about the audit, he hasn’t seen the report and will not discuss what it might reveal, given the ongoing investigation.
“I can’t talk about that.”