The mission of the Sheriff’s Office Evidence Control Unit to provide a safe and secure environment for the storage of evidence and property in the hands of the Sheriff,  to facilitate the prosecution of criminals and to ensure the proper return of evidence and property to its rightful owners.

The Evidence Control Unit is a highly specialized section within the Sheriff’s Office. The Sheriff’s Office Evidence Control Unit maintains approximately 87,000 individual pieces of evidence, found property, seized items and surrendered items in its inventory. The staff of Evidence Control is made up of five civilian Evidence Control Officers, one civilian Law Enforcement Technician.  A Sergeant supervises the Unit.  Evidence Control is tasked with controlling and maintaining the chain of custody on all items seized as evidence or found property, recovered stolen property and items surrendered to the Sheriff’s Office by court order. Evidence Control is also responsible for the disposal of illegal firearms, unclaimed property and performs controlled substances destructions.

The Evidence Control facility has a variety of storage systems to provide the most efficient storage and retrieval of items. The facility was specifically designed as an evidence storage and handling facility. Evidence Control has passed all accreditation standards as required of an evidence facility for the Sheriff’s Office to be accredited. All the Evidence Control Officers and the supervisor are certified and are members of the International Association for Evidence and Property, an international organization which performs training and testing of persons employed in the field of evidence management.

Evidence Control Officers are available 24 hours a day 7 days a week to respond to crime scenes to take custody of evidence eliminating the need for officers to transport evidence to our facility. Evidence Control has five vehicles of various sizes which permit the staff to deal with almost any quantity of evidence received from a crime scene. We provide evidence and property services to the following county organizations and contract cities.

The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office

The Regional Narcotics Task Force

Snohomish County Community Transit

The Snohomish County Medical Examiner

The City of Stanwood

The City of Snohomish

The City of Darrington

The City of Goldbar

The Town of Index

Hours of operation:

Evidence Control hours of operation for the public to pick up property are between 9:00 am and 11:00 am and 12:00 pm and 3:00 pm Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. The facility is closed to the public on Monday, Wednesday, weekends and Holidays.

Evidence Control facility is located at 1000 California Street, in downtown Everett. Please note that the facility is not part of the County Campus but about 5 blocks west of the County Campus. California Street can be access off West Marine View Drive in the 2700 block of West Marine View Drive. Persons coming to the facility may call 425-388-7050 for specific directions to the facility. Persons wishing to pick up property should call first and make an appointment so your property will be ready for you.

Typical questions we receive from for our customers.

Q-When can I get my property back?

A-Usually when the investigation or trial is completed.

Q-Who decides when I can get my property,

A-In most cases the investigating officer or detective in charge of the case. Normally the Evidence Control staff does not make decisions about the release of property unless the statute of limitations has passed.

Q- When do you auction unclaimed items?

A- The sheriff’s office has contracted with a local auction company to perform off site auctions of unclaimed property. Please call us for that information.

Q-My son’s bike was stolen, can I come to Evidence Control to see if I can find it?

A-No, because of liability and security reasons access into the facility is highly restricted. If you have a good description of a stolen item we can check for the item but with 87,000 items in the facility it may be difficult.