The dollar amount of seized cash discovered missing from the New Orleans Police Department’s evidence storage continues to climb, according to Eyewitness News sources.

So far, they say the dollar amount is upwards of a hundred thousand dollars and rising.

The NOPD wouldn't confirm or deny the amounts, but said their criminal investigation into $18,000 of missing cash is ongoing.

“Is it gonna be a nightmare for us? Absolutely. Are we gonna have some problems in court? Absolutely. Are some people gonna get away that should go to jail? Absolutely,” testified Superintendent Warren Riley at a City Council Budget hearing Tuesday.

“I can understand that immediately after Katrina, you know, that we'd have some of those concerns. But, you know, we're three years out. And I don't know how many cases are being looked at here,” questioned City Council Member Arnie Fielkow at the hearing.

The chairman of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, Rafael Goyeneche, a local government watchdog group, said the NOPD needs to publicly answer many questions, including, how long the department has known there may be problems with security at evidence storage sites.

“It's bad enough that there's money in evidence that's unaccounted for. But, it's now being disclosed that the department was aware of it, the leadership of the department was aware that there was a problem in 2006,” Goyeneche said.

NOPD staff reports obtained by Eyewitness News show that Evidence and Property Division staff raised security concerns about their facilities two years ago, including in November of 2006, when some NOPD evidence was stored in trailers, some still sat in the once-flooded basement of Police Headquarters.

In May of 2007, several reports noted the large amount of money in evidence that was seized, and raised concerns about the lack of security.

"If there was an internal theft problem within the police department, it would be unlikely that it would be limited to one case," Goyeneche said.

Loyola law professor Dane Ciolino said the missing evidence investigation won't be an across the board problem for Orleans Parish criminal cases, but a case-by-case concern.

“However you characterize what happened in the police evidence room, as a big or a small problem, you can bet defense lawyers will make it seem to be a very significant problem when these cases wind up going to trial,” Ciolino said.

The City Council asked that the new Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro be involved in evaluating what cases might be impacted.

According to DA spokesman Dalton Savwoir, Cannizzaro is focused on his budget hearing Friday and won’t comment on anything else.