38 RCNY § 12-51 Introduction.
§ 12-51 Introduction.
Following the attack of September 11, 2001, the City of New York undertook extraordinary efforts to locate and preserve items of personal property recovered in the vicinity of the World Trade Center site. Property was found and vouchered at three major locations: Ground Zero itself, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, and a special facility at Fresh Kills landfill where police officers sorted through tons of material recovered from the disaster site. The Property Clerk has cleansed, sorted, collated, and categorized all property that came into the custody of the Police Department following the terrorist attack. The Property Clerk has conducted and continues to conduct comprehensive investigations, utilizing available technology, with the goal of determining ownership of each piece of property, regardless of the property's value. Where the Police Department has been able to establish the ownership of specific items that were recovered, those items have been returned to their owners. Thus far, property from approximately 72% of the 26,779 vouchers containing items recovered, has been returned. Ownership of the remaining vouchered property has yet to be determined. The Police Department recognizes that, whatever the monetary value of an individual piece of property may be, it may have great value to the survivors and family members of those whose lives were lost. As demonstrated by numerous requests from family members, this is particularly so as to jewelry that has been recovered. Therefore, the Police Department has committed special resources to examine and classify lost jewelry and has created a special questionnaire to assist individuals who may wish to make a claim for such items. Out of respect and concern for those who were killed and their family members, and the survivors of the attack, the City is establishing special procedures for individuals to provide the Property Clerk with information needed to determine the ownership of unclaimed jewelry remaining in the custody of the Property Clerk. The Police Department will also continue to process requests for the return of property other than jewelry made pursuant to the regular procedures of the Property Clerk. Because of the volume of items and the number of possible claims, it may be some time before ownership of claimed items can be determined. In many cases, claims may be made for items that have never been recovered. In many other cases, claims may be made for items with respect to which it is not possible to make a determination of ownership. For example, it may ultimately prove virtually impossible to ascertain ownership of certain property because of its generic nature or its condition when recovered. The ultimate disposition of items which are not claimed, or of items ownership of which cannot be determined, will be decided at a future time after people have had the opportunity to file claims as provided in this subchapter.