11. NYPD officers working evidence rooms

As Graham Raymanreported in the Voice, cops go to the evidence rooms when they’ve been stripped of their guns, their mobility, and the power to police the streets (indeed, just about every reason they became cops in the first place). It is among the most humiliating and least powerful jobs on the entire force. Further, when a cop is sent to guard the 10 million items in evidence (about 1.6 million added per year), they aren’t even given the tools to effectively police these inanimate objects. As Rayman wrote: “The responsibility for tracking that sheer volume of items is difficult and complicated. But in the year 2011, a time when computer scanners and bar codes are commonplace in Walmart and Rite Aidstores all over the country, it is shocking to learn that the NYPD still relies on ledger books, black ink, typewriters, and carbon copies to track that volume of material.”* Evidence is routinely lost and unable to be found.

* This would be the craziest, most interesting, most tedious data entry job.  Can you imagine just how many people the NYPD would have to hire (and pay) in order to accomplish this task and just how long it would take to enter all that information into a computer?  It would be massive.

I wonder if the temps would have to sign confidentiality agreements…

I wonder how many of those temps would be artists…