AURORA - A state lawmaker told a group of families of slain and missing people Thursday that the legislature would consider requiring law enforcement authorities to follow a standardized practice of preserving evidence.

Sen. Ken Gordon, D-Denver, said that the legislature would consider such a bill during its next session.

"We'll be looking at the preservation-of-evidence statutes because we want to make it workable," Gordon told members of Families of Homicide Victims and Missing Persons and metro-area law enforcement officers during a forum at the Aurora Public Library.

Gordon said he isn't certain that such legislation would become law. He said that he and other lawmakers will visit the Colorado Bureau of Investigation "to see how they do things."

Colorado has no uniform guidelines for preserving evidence in criminal cases. The guidelines are established by each sheriff's office and police department, which is responsible for safeguarding evidence.

District attorneys have argued against a uniform policy, maintaining that the current systems that the individual departments and the CBI have in place have worked. They contend that keeping some evidence for an indefinite period isn't feasible.