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| CoP:
POLICE DOING THEIR BEST TO SOLVE MURDERS |
| By Sheena
Brooks |
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Commissioner
of Police for the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police
Force Austin Williams is defending his rank and file
with regard to the low detection rate in homicides and
gun-related incidents. Williams told The Observer that
local law enforcement officers were doing their best
to handle the escalating crime problem.
“We are doing all we can. The police are not present
when these shootings occur and eyewitnesses don’t
come forward. That makes it even more difficult to increase
convictions as criminals do not usually leave incriminating
evidence behind.”
When asked if guns confiscated during stop and searches
and other means were being tested to establish whether
they had been used in the commission of any crimes,
the CoP admitted they were not.
“We have not had the guns tested in that regard
as it is very expensive to send off to foreign labs.
Of course you cannot put a price on public safety. That
is why there are plans to establish a regional lab to
process evidence on a forensic basis,” he informed.
Williams said they were looking to the US’ Federal
Bureau of Investigation and other extra-regional agencies
for assistance. He also informed that St. Kitts has
just acquired a machine that trained personnel could
use to carry out ballistic testing.
“This machine is used for forensic testing to compare
bullet casings collected from crime scenes etcetera
to match them to guns confiscated by police. We have
equipment to collect fingerprints however fingerprinting
is almost outdated. We do not have a national data bank
for fingerprints and criminals know to avoid leaving
them in most cases. DNA is where crime-fighting is headed.
There are several sources of DNA that can be traced
including blood, saliva, hair and skin cells and that
increases the chances of detection in crimes and subsequent
convictions.”
St. Kitts recently held Regional Conference on youth
crime and violence prevention and Williams said, “We
are hoping for positive results from the ideas discussed
during the conference.”
The homicide toll for the federation stands at 13 so
far this year with several non-fatal shootings also
having occurred, mostly in the West Basseterre area.
Police however recently announced a breakthrough in
a 2005 murder that led to two young men being charged
for the crime. On Friday 3rd July 2009 Amal Whyte, 24,
of Trafalgar Village and Devon “Patches” Fyfield,
26, of Wades Garden were formally charged with the murder
of business man Hubert Phipps on June 23rd 2005. Both
men are currently serving prison sentences for attempted
murder and House breaking and Larceny respectively but
are expected to appear in court shortly to answer to
the murder charge. |
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