Today’s Excellence Behind The Scenes subject is Julie Bergstrom. Julie is a Records Technician in our Police Department. She has worked for the City for the past 23 years. Julie is married to Jim “Bergie” Bergstrom, a recently retired Police Officer from our Police Department. She has one daughter, Jena, and two bonus kids: daughter Carrie and son Peter. Julie also has two grandchildren: Parker James and Madelyn Marie. Her interests include crocheting blankets for family & friends, refinishing furniture, antique shopping and reading. Julie told me her favorite work-related memory here at the City was on her 30th birthday when her co-workers wrapped her work cube in saran wrap and filled it completely up with balloons and cards. Fortunately, she added, her shift on Dog Watch (11pm-7am) was light that night!
A Property Technician is responsible for maintaining, storing, and disposing of all property taken into police custody. Julie is responsible for carefully safeguarding evidence for criminal cases. She must ensure that evidence is not “contaminated” so that it has integrity in a court of law. Property Technicians are a crucial link in the criminal justice system between the Police and the Lawyers. Julie and her co-workers preserve the “chain of custody” from beginning to end. That’s a critical task in insuring that people get fair trials and the justice they deserve.
You can get an idea about Julie’s daily job through the four photos I’ve included with this post. She has a desk and works at a computer. She must make careful notes as to when a piece of evidence came into her possession, what she did with it and where it is every minute of the day after that. She controls a secured locked area where evidence is stored. She keeps track of evidence all the time, such as the many bicycles that find there way into Police custody throughout the year. In the final photo, Julie is filing information in a secure area. She helps run a very orderly part of our operation.
When I asked Julie what she liked most about her job she said it was the opportunity to be part of a high performing work team in the Records Division, but also that she has the opportunity work independently a fair amount of the time too. She said that she likes to “clean and clear out clutter”, which serves her very well in her job. While preserving evidence is very important, it’s also important to know when it’s OK to get rid of it too, otherwise we’d have a warehouse full of stuff that isn’t claimed by anyone or needed by the Courts.
Julie is good at her job, but she wanted to make sure that I recognized the rest of her work team too. This includes people like Jenna Scadden, Tina Zucchi, Pat Sullivan, Sandy Kelly, Stacy Boyer, and Sandy Mitchell. You’ll hear more about Sandy, in fact, later this week. It’s a strong work team whose contribution to the criminal justice system is well known inside the system, but is often unrecognized by people in the general public. Records and evidence are key components of translating police action into a legal outcome for both victims and perpetrators in our justice system. It’s people like Julie – and her co-workers – who make that system work at its best.
