Police accused of contaminating crime scenes

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Police accused of contaminating crime scenes

8:53 CAT | 08 Sep 2016

In file Club of Mozambique crime-scene

Experts at the Maputo crime laboratory of the Mozambican Criminal Investigation Police (PIC) have complained of police officers interfering with evidence at crime scenes.

When Attorney-General Beatriz Buchili visited the laboratory on Monday, a ballistics expert, Frederico Agostinho, told her that before staff from the lab arrive at the scene the police have already collected evidence, making the technical investigations difficult. Furthermore, once the evidence has been removed from the scene, the technical staff encounter difficulties in gaining access to it.

Generally, the ordinary police (and not members of PIC) are the first to arrive at a crime scene. Their interference then contaminates the scene.

“They collect material and put it in their lockers”, said Agostinho, “and when the expert arrives, there’s nothing he can do. When we go to the police for access to the guns, they put difficulties in our way. So we are asking that they preserve the crime scene”.

Other members of the public, including journalists, interfere with crime scenes. Agostinho said the previous night (Monday) he had seen a television report in which a journalist picked up a bottle at a crime scene.

By doing so, the journalist unwittingly contaminated the scene “and all this complicates our work”, added Agostinho.

“We ask everyone to be very careful about protecting crime scenes and vestiges of crimes”, he said, “because when everything is left in place, it could help solve the crime. The police officers should bar access to the crime scene, and the only people who should be allowed to enter are the experts”.

Buchili was visiting the laboratory to follow the activities undertaken by the PIC experts in collecting and analyzing evidence, and undertaking the detailed work fundamental for combating organized and cross-border crime.

Assistant Attorney-General Amabelia Chuquela told reporters “crime is evolving with each passing day, and our expertise must also evolve so that it can give us the answers we need. Immediate intervention by the technical experts at the crime scene may help in rapidly solving crimes”.

Source: AIM