Chain of Custody

As I was walking my dogs, Keiffer and BaJa at a park one day, I met some nice folks from Tampa, Florida who were vacationing in the area. Their children were happily playing in the waterfall next to the beautiful old chapel and were so enthralled with Keiffer they captured their parents attention. As I answered the tenth question about what kind of dogs they were and why one has a blue eye and a brown eye, the father asked me what I did for a living.

I politely answered him to say that I had been in the records management business for over a decade, and as I went into more detail, I could tell that something was wrong. It became so obvious I had to sort of laugh and ask what WAS wrong, and he proceeded to tell me his story.

The story goes that the father is an owner of an insurance business that has three locations, and they use an on-site vendor for their shredding needs. One day they found their checking account was $4K or so shorter than it was supposed to be and after much tracing and research, someone had stolen an old check from one of boxes given to the on-site shredding vendor. Research showed that it was not an employee, but someone else and they never understood how it happened. At that time, I tried to explain what could have easily happened – the chain of custody was broken.

The on-site vendor obviously dumped his load at a recycling center instead of bailing it at a facility, and for whatever reason, the check slipped through the shredder. The recycling center, which has no fiduciary responsibility to the customer or the vendor, hires employees with no background checks or drug testing, and the employee in question sees the check and the rest is history.

Chain of custody is the very essence of the shredding business – where it is done is null compared to the process the documents take once they leave your door. On-site vendors can let documents blow away in the wind or take a load to the recycling center just as in this case.

Off site shredding vendors lock the containers in a locked vehicle, and unload inside a facility with cameras; then your documents are shredded securely, baled and safely held until the load goes directly to the paper mill for processing back into paper towels, etc. This process is no different from taking documents home or having a records management company like mine deliver a box of documents right to your office door.

It would seem logical to the unknowing eye that having the documents shredded at your door is the safest way to do it, but my best advice is to investigate further as to the safeguards and procedures that are taken with your vendor – one way is to ask if they are NAID certified. NAID certification puts the procedures in place FOR you so you don’t have to worry!

Blessings,

Renee Keener