As someone who has experience in Law Enforcement management (I was a police supervisor, and served as the liason between NYPD Management and the Bronx District Attorneys Office from 1994-1998), I find it extremely difficult to believe that supervisors would let these chips go back to the cops without having very strong legal advice from outside agencies that it was OK to do so. As issues like this go up the ranks, the attitude of upper management in law enforcement is COVER YOUR A$$. Trust me, these bosses were told that it was OK for the cops to keep these chips.

Now who was consulted? Who knows. I would guess that the opinion of officials in NJ meant almost nothing to determining what could be done with the chips. Most likely, the checked with whoever their department consults with for civil legal advice in their state, and they were probably told that as far as their state was concerned, these chips were "abandoned" property, or something like that. With that kind of advice, police supervisors have an answer if they were questioned about the propriety of letting the finders keep the chips. That is the way most departments I dealt with would operate.

The genie is out of the bottle now. Mark my words, not a single thing will be done about it.