Move over CSI, Belize is getting DNA lab

doug singh

If the witness protection program does not pan out, all is not loss. The Police department also intends to access technology that will enhance its crime solving capabilities. Following the lead of NBC’s Law and Order, the department is implementing a Homicide Unit. The police will soon procure a lab and equipment to harness human DNA as evidence to solve crime. The minister also spoke about how simple blood testing has uncovered health concerns of inmates at Kolbe.

Doug Singh, Minister of Police

“We’ve also submitted the package under the CARSI project to the U.S. Embassy for possible funding. But in addition to that, we need to have trained personnel who can do D.N.A. testing and we’ve liaised with an individual in Belize who already has a doctorate degree in molecular biology, to see if we can identify a program that he can actually so in a short term to do the kind of testing that we need and can be the individual who can testify in court because he has the qualifications to do so. That has been one of the challenges with respect to be able to have D.N.A. evidence stand up in court. You need an individual that is qualified, that is certified that is able to do so. And we can’t just put a lab in place without the human resources, so we are trying to coordinate efforts to do so.”

Jose Sanchez

“In terms of D.N.A. evidence and technology, how soon we should see that? Are you of the opinion that when people are convicted of crimes before leaving the Central Prison, that their DNA should also be put in a system?”

Doug Singh

“Certain elements of that will depend on certain legislative changes because you can take fingerprints. We’re having a challenge at this point with respect to prisons and H.I.V. testing, we’ve received a report from KOLBE that about seventy-one or seventy-two of the one thousand three hundred or so inmates are H.I.V. positive. This is an alarming number and those are the ones who have done voluntary testing. We are trying to introduce the possibility of mandatory testing and we have reviewed the law to see if this is possible so that we can get an assessment of what it is—this is a risk. If we could amend the laws where individuals are convicted and we can get D.N.A. samples from them so that it populates the information database that the other crimes are committed in the future, and D.N.A. evidence is left that we can link them up, then we certainly would want to do that but we would want to look at the enabling legislation that would allow us to do so or maybe there are that already allows us to do that. But is part of the process of populating the database. With respect to when, we’re actively working on securing the equipment. I imagine that in about six to eight months, it is possible that we will have the D.N.A. laboratory established. I can’t promise you that we will have the technical person at that time. We have sent a Miss Thimbrel from the forensic lab—she has gone away to study. But her course of study to qualify her to be an expert in D.N.A. analysis will take two years, I believe. Certainly, she will come back and she will be able to perform it, but in the interim, we have to identify somebody who will assist us in the analysis portion of it.”