Occasionally, authorized personnel may require large amounts of currency to be placed within a station/unit's safe for secure, temporary storage (i.e., "flash money"). Authorized personnel wishing to temporarily store currency of this type must package the currency in a sealed, serialized, transparent evidence bag, enter the item in PRELIMS, including the serial numbers of the evidence bags, and transfer custody of the currency to the station/unit’s safe. A case/URN must exist in order to enter items into PRELIMS; therefore, if a case does not exist for these “temporary storage” items, a case must be created in PRELIMS.
The sealed bags may later be released to a verified representative of the unit which originally placed the currency into the safe, or the contents of the bags may be deposited. Transfer of the item out of the safe requires watch commander’s approval which shall be recorded in PRELIMS (see section 5-04/070.60 “Safe” Storage Locations; and Section 5-04/090.10 General Accountability for Currency). Unless there is evidence of tampering, the seal is broken, or the integrity of the bag has been violated, the watch commander in charge of the safe or any other Department member shall not break the seal for the purpose of counting the contents. (See section 5-04/010.70 Sealing of Evidence.) The date, name of the watch commander relinquishing custody, and the identity of the person taking custody of the sealed bag will be tracked in PRELIMS.
"Authorized Personnel" as used in this section includes Department personnel assigned responsibility for handling such currency. It also includes members of inter-agency task forces on which the Department participates.