Evidence Control

The Evidence Control Unit is responsible for the overall control, custody, release or other disposition of property taken into possession of the Winnipeg Police Service.

Hours of Operation

The unit is open to the public (excluding stat holidays):

  • Monday to Thursday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
  • Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

If you have business with this unit, you are advised to contact us directly by calling 204-986-6280 for further information regarding our location and/or processes.

What the Evidence Control Unit is not responsible for:

  • Police Seized Vehicles
    • Please contact the investigating officer directly.
  • Abandoned or derelict vehicles
    • Please call the City of Winnipeg 311 Service Centre
  • Overgrown yards, additions to personal property, fire permits, etc.
    • Please call the City of Winnipeg 311 Service Centre or visit the City of Winnipeg website for further information relating to your concern (i.e. Bylaw, Licensing, etc).

How to Recover Property

Contacting Evidence Control Unit

If you know your property has been confiscated by police as a result of a seizure or recovery, please call the Evidence Control Unit at 204-986-6280 to determine if your property is here. We will be happy to check on your behalf to determine if your property is here, however public viewing of recovered property is not permitted.

When you contact our office, please have your occurrence (file) number and other details (i.e. Officer's name, date of event, property description, etc) ready. This will aid our staff in locating your property.

Claiming Recovered Property

Often, each situation requires specific instructions on how property is released.

Normally it takes 48 hours for the property to be retrieved / delivered to our release staging area. Please contact the Evidence Control Unit at 204-986-6280 prior to attending in the event your property is not at our facility. Having as much information as possible (occurrence (file) numbers, names, dates, etc) ready when you call will avoid delays or problems in locating your property.

In some cases, special release procedures are required in order to preserve necessary court evidence for prosecution purposes. Please contact us to ensure your property can be released prior to court and an appointment can be made to perform the release.

In certain circumstances, you may send written authorization with the agent in the form of a letter signed by you. If you have received a letter from us, please read it carefully for special instructions including whether or not an 'agent' attendance is authorized or permitted.

Arrangements can be made (in some circumstances) to have property couriered to out of town residents, however this will be done so at the owner's expense.

Releasing Property After Court Proceedings

Due to the variety of possibilities that exist under these circumstances (nature of offence, type of property, existence of other related charges, other accused persons in same case, etc), there is no consistent way to release property at the conclusion of court proceeding. You may make inquiries with your defence lawyer, the investigating member, etc to obtain direction on retrieving your property. You may also contact us at 204-986-6280 and we can provide further instructions if necessary.

All evidence relating to concluded cases must be held for appeal/retention periods that can run anywhere from one month to several years, depending on the circumstances. In these cases, if the property is requested prior to expiration of those appeal/retention periods, it is usually only released by producing a Court Order in advance of attendance. Again, even these are subject to review prior to release, so there is a chance that it could take several days to resolve.

Firearm Release

Firearms and the acquisition/possession/storage of them, is covered by a variety of legislative requirements. This includes, but is not limited to, the following:

(a) be the holder of a valid Possession Acquisition License,

(b) have each firearm registered, and

(c) ensure you are in compliance with storage/transportation regulations.

Please read the letter carefully and follow the instructions contained therein. If you are still unsure as to the requirements, or you did not receive a letter from us, please contact us at 204-986-6345 and have the pertinent information ready (i.e. Occurrence (file) number, dates, officer's information, etc). You may also contact the Canadian Firearms Center at 1-800-731-4000.

Property Auctions

Property auctions are held 2 to 3 times per year. Information on these auctions will be announced on this website, papers, radio and T.V. with date, time and location.

Stolen Bicycles

If Your Bike Has Been Stolen...

You must report your bike lost or stolen to the police. It is advisable that you record and report the serial number to aid in the potential recovery of the bike. The better the description you can provide the better the chance of recovery/identification.

If your bike has been stolen, your first course of action should be to make a report.
You can:

Before making your report, have your bike’s serial number and any unique marks/engravings (distinguishable meaning unique to that individual bike, not a group of bikes) that will aid us matching your report to the bikes we find. The officer taking your complaint will ask you for this information.

S/he will be able to search our record systems almost immediately. Keep in mind that if you have unique descriptors but no serial number, it will likely be in our records system and can be found that way,

Viewing Recovered Bicycles

Our members do recover a number of bicycles throughout the year and each one is entered into our database with the aim of matching them with their rightful owner.

Once we have processed these bikes, they are sent to the City of Winnipeg Bicycle Recovery Office. If you have a good description of your stolen bicycle (serial number, colour, etc.), you may wish to contact their office through the City of Winnipeg 311 Service Centre.

Some bikes end up in our Evidence Control Unit. This facility is a secure facility, meaning access to the general public is not permitted.

If you have reported a complete detailed description of your bike, our staff may be able to find your bike when new bikes come in. If they do, you will be notified.

Bicycle Auctions

Bicycle auctions are held annually in the spring through the Bicycle Recovery office of the City of Winnipeg, or call 311 for information.

Remember:
The best way to protect your bicycle is
with a good lock and to register it with the
City of Winnipeg Community Services Bicycle Recovery Section.

Unclaimed Property

With some restrictions and conditions, finders are permitted to claim property if it is unclaimed by an owner after 30 days. It is the finders responsibility to contact the Evidence Control Unit at P1 - 266 Graham Avenue, 204-986-6280, in order to make arrangements to pick up the found property in the event the owner does not claim it.

The following describes return restrictions and includes, but is not limited to, the following:

(a) Firearms/ammunition/fireworks (including air rifles/ammo) of any kind are not returned to finders.

(b) Anything which would bring discredit to the police or hinder police efforts to make Winnipeg a safe community (i.e. pornographic materials, radar detectors, liquor/alcohol, prescription and non-prescription narcotics/pills, unsafe products of any type, etc) are not returned to finders.

(c) Cash amounts less than 25 dollars are not returned to finders.

(d) Any items that are prohibited to possess (prohibited knives, etc) are not returned to finders.

(e) Hazardous goods of any kind (including blood contaminated products and other biohazards) are not returned to finders.

(f) Any item that a lawful owner has been identified for, but is unclaimed (includes wallets and contents, purses, tote bags, etc) are not returned to finders.

(g) Any technical product that contains information therein that could potentially result in private information being released to a third party unknowingly (ie. computers, gaming consoles, cell phones, personal organizers and in some cases digital cameras (dependent on content/deletion capabilities), etc. are not returned to finders.

(h) Unsafe item(s) or anything that cannot be proven as safe to use/operate such as Baby seats, strollers, motorcycle helmets, etc. are not returned to finders.

(i) Anything else, at the discretion of Property staff, that is considered not suitable for return for a variety of reasons/circumstances not covered above. In these cases you may contact our office for an explanation if required.

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