Abandoned
and Unclaimed Personal UPPS
No. 05.01.20
Property Issue
No. 3
Effective
Date: 01/15/2008
Review:
July 1 E6Y
01. POLICY STATEMENT
01.01 This policy sets forth guidelines for the
disposition of abandoned and unclaimed personal property as specified in
Section 12 of Chapter III of the Regents' Rules.
02.
DEFINITION
02.01 The
Regents’ Rules define abandoned property as follows: "Property shall be
considered abandoned if it appears from the circumstances under which the
University comes into possession of the property that the owner has thrown it
away or has voluntarily left or lost it without any intent or expectation to
regain it."
03. PROCEDURES FOR IMPLEMENTING THIS POLICY
03.01 Any
person who discovers abandoned or unclaimed personal property on campus should
turn it over to the University Police Department (UPD) or Materials Management
according to the following provisions.
03.02 The
following departments may develop an internal "Temporary Retention
Policy" establishing the method of storage, time frame of retention, and
method of returning abandoned or found property before submitting it to UPD or
Materials Management. Each policy should require that the department create and
maintain a log of property received and its movement.
·
Residence
Life
·
Athletics
·
Campus
Recreation
·
LBJ
Student Center
·
Continuing
Education
·
Others
as approved by the University Attorney
03.03 Both
the vice president to which the department reports and the University Attorney
must approve each department’s policy developed under Section 03.02.
03.04 UPD
will check with the Texas Crime Information Center and the National Crime
Information Center, if the property possesses the appropriate identifying
features, to determine whether the property is listed as stolen.
03.05 UPD
will make a reasonable effort to identify and return the property to the owner.
04. PROCEDURES FOR DISPOSING OF PROPERTY
04.01 All
abandoned or found contraband, weapons of any kind or illegal drugs and
narcotics must be immediately reported to UPD and surrendered to the responding
officer. A police report will be made and the case number provided to the
reporting party.
04.02 Property
that meets the following description should be sent immediately to UPD and not
to Materials Management:
a. Credit
cards, wallets, jewelry, watches, handbags, etc.,
b. Laptop
or desktop computers, PDAs, MP3 players, cell phones, cameras, and similar
small electronic devices;
c. Memory
sticks, jump drives, USB drives, magnetic tape cartridges/reels, hard disk
drives (internal or external), DCs/DVDs, and any other material capable of
storing digitized information; and
d. Clothing
with an obvious value exceeding $50 or which contains another organization’s
identification and is associated with the organization’s recent presence on the
Texas State campus
Other property found on campus or in
campus facilities which by its very nature meets the Regents’ Rules
prescription "...that the owner has thrown it away or has voluntarily left
or lost it without any intent or expectation to regain it," may be
disposed of by the department that oversees the facility in which it was found.
Examples of such property include inexpensive clothing, personal care supplies
such as soaps, and similar items that do not include ownership identification
or other identifying marks by which a person could establish ownership.
04.03 The
following abandoned or found property should be sent immediately to Materials
Management and not UPD or to Materials Management after the retention period
established by the department and approved as in Section 03.02:
a. Towels,
towel robes and similar items,
b. Personal,
vehicle, house or other keys for which ownership cannot be established,
c. Fans,
TV’s, refrigerators, lamps and similar items.
04.04 To
recover property held by UPD, owners must present proper identification and
proof of ownership, and must sign a property receipt accepting the property in
its “as is” condition. A photocopy of the receipt will be provided to the owner
and the original receipt will be retained by UPD.
04.05 UPD
shall require proof of ownership and proper identification before releasing property
to a person claiming it. UPD will give the claimant a copy of the property receipt
and will attach the signed original to the other documents related to the
property.
04.06 After 120 days,
UPD may dispose of unclaimed property as follows:
a. Weapons,
illegal drugs, and other contraband will be destroyed or handled as stipulated
in the Texas Code of Criminal Procedures (CCP 18.19).
b. Laptop
or desktop computers, PDAs, MP3 players, cell phones, cameras and similar small
electronic devices will be completely sanitized or otherwise made unreadable by
Police Department IT staff, then transferred to Materials Management according
to the procedures for disposal of computer equipment and documentation found in
UPPS No. 05.01.02, University Surplus Property (Equipment and Consumable
Supplies).
c. Memory
sticks, jump drives, USB drives, magnetic tape cartridges/reels, hard disk
drives (internal or external) , CDs/DVDs, and any other material capable of
storing digitized information will be destroyed.
d. All
other property will be kept for UPD use or transferred to Materials Management
as surplus university property.
05. PROCEDURES FOR PUBLICATION OF THIS POLICY
05.01 The
Vice President for Academic Affairs will publish a summary of this policy in
the Faculty Handbook.
05.02 The
Director of Human Resources will publish a summary of this policy in the Staff
Handbook.
05.03 The
Dean of Students will publish a summary of this policy in the student handbook.
06. REVIEWERS OF THIS UPPS
06.01 Reviewers
of this UPPS include the following:
Position Date
Director, University Police Dept. July 1 E6Y
07. CERTIFICATION STATEMENT
This UPPS has been approved by the
following individuals in their official capacities, and represents Texas State
policy and procedure from the date of this document until superseded.
Director of University Police
Department; senior reviewer of this UPPS
Vice President for Student Affairs
President