Police officers refresh their CSI skills
And before an arrest is made for a crime, a proper investigation must take place. That investigation normally includes taking interviews from possible witnesses. But by the time the witness statements are written down, the investigative process had already taken into account details of the scene. The scene of the crime is a virtual ground zero for police work. That is why Scenes of Crimes Personnel and police officers from formations throughout the country are taking a refresher course in crime scene investigation (CSI). Gaspar Sanchez, the Head of the Scenes of Crimes Unit, says that the two week C.S.I. course which is currently taking place at the Forensic Lab in Ladyville, will cover just about every aspect of crime scene analysis.
Gaspar Sanchez, Head of Scenes of Crimes Unit, Belize Police Dept.
“The training we are conducting, we have half the scenes of crimes personnel and the other half are police officers who work with criminal investigation.”
Jose Sanchez
“How long will this training last and what exactly are they going to do?”
Gaspar Sanchez
“The training is for two weeks. It started on Monday, what we are basically doing is refreshing their crime investigative techniques as well as adding new techniques to their arsenal when it comes to processing crime scenes.”
Jose Sanchez
“What goes into the processing of a crime scene?”
Gaspar Sanchez
“Well actually it starts from the beginning. When it was first reported, the importance of the police officers, the uniform police officers, was to cordon off the scene; to keep spectators and unnecessary people from walking through the scene. That’s where it starts and then it comes to the collection, the packaging, the identification of evidence before it comes to the forensic lab for examination purposes.”
Jose Sanchez
“When you look at an area like Belize City there is a lot of reported murders. What methods do you use at a murder scene to package it?”
Gaspar Sanchez
“A murder scene is one of the most important given it’s a serious offense. The people have to be there to document through photographs, through sketches, any measurements, any items need to be processed quickly and submitted to the lab for examination purposes.”
Jose Sanchez
“Would you say it is necessary for them to refresh themselves every so often?”
Gaspar Sanchez
“Every so often we have new techniques coming out and we just like to remind them if they’re doing things in an improper way, just to remind them to do it in a proper way in a better way to administrate justice.”
On Thursday, the C.S.I. group will continue their training in Belmopan where they will use real blood to review blood splatter analysis techniques.
