Commissioner Satisfied with Forensic Labs Work

Commissioner of Police Owen Ellington says he is fully satisfied with the work of the Forensic Science Laboratory in Kingston.

Speaking with reporters, after an introductory tour of the facility along with the National Security Minister, Hon Peter Bunting, Commissioner Ellington said he was “thoroughly impressed” with the quality of work done at the Lab and the staff’s commitment to supporting investigations, despite the capacity limitations.

Commissioner Ellington said that the forensic component is critical to the arsenal of the police, in the task of fighting crime.

Pointing to the importance of civilian or ‘I see” witnesses, and the threat they are increasingly coming under, the most logical solution is to resort to increased scientific evidence, and that is what the lab is all about, Mr. Ellington stated.

“All cases involving drugs, guns, murder and a significant amount of sexual assault cases have to be processed by the lab, and the evidence provided is always crucial to the success of those cases, when it gets to the prosecution stage,” he explained.

Addressing the matter of the public tampering with crime scenes and hampering effective and thorough investigations, the Commissioner appealed to citizens, especially those disputing police action, not to invade crime scenes for spent shell casings and other pieces of evidence, as this only makes the investigators’ job harder.

“There have been many instances where we’ve had differences of opinion between the police and criminals, and citizens dispute the account of the Police. But, tampering hurts the crime scene and doesn’t enable us to prove the citizens correct, if indeed they are,” he said.

He pointed out that, on occasions when the Police have to go into a crime scene, they minimize the disturbance and they are trained to reconstruct any area that is disturbed.

By O. Rodger Hutchinson, JIS PRO