Yuma police open new evidence facility honoring Lt. Elkins

The Yuma Police Department opened a new evidence facility that officials said will give investigators a larger, more secure place to store and process evidence, a change that can strengthen chain of custody in cases that move from arrest to trial. The building was dedicated to Lt. Daniel P. Elkins, turning a practical upgrade into a memorial for one of Yuma’s fallen officers.

Evidence handling rarely draws attention outside the courtroom, but it shapes whether cases hold together. The Yuma Police Department’s Evidence Unit says its room is responsible for the custody and control of items of evidence pending charges and trial, while the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office says its evidence department receives, catalogs, stores and submits evidence for forensic testing and trial. The city’s Found Property page also says Arizona law requires certain property to be kept for 30 days so an owner can claim it.

Elkins, whose full name was Daniel Powell Elkins, was killed in the line of duty on Tuesday, July 4, 1995. Officer Down Memorial Page lists his cause of death as gunfire, and the Arizona Department of Public Safety said Elkins and Sgt. Michael L. Crowe suffered fatal gunshot wounds when they came upon a burglary in progress at the Southwest Border Alliance headquarters in Yuma.

The new facility also carried that history into the present. Yuma Mayor Douglas Nicholls said the opening of a new building is usually a joyous time, but called this one a “mixed” occasion because it was being dedicated to Elkins. KYMA described the building as a larger, more secure space for storing and processing evidence that also serves as a lasting memorial to Elkins and Crowe.

For Yuma police, the project tied together two parts of the department’s work that rarely share the same spotlight: keeping evidence secure enough to stand up in court and preserving the memory of an officer whose death still marks the agency’s history.