Justice Minister Christlyn Moore says the police must take some blame for the backlog of “matters of evidence” at the Forensic Science Centre. She said so during yesterday’s post-Cabinet news conference at the Office of the Prime Minister in St Clair as she responded to questions on the reported backlog at the centre. Moore said in some instances the police had failed to inform the centre that the forensic evidence no longer needed to be analysed, as the respective case had ended for one reason or another. She said such matters would include cases in which the defendant had died or pleaded guilty before the material had been analysed.
“Those matters remain with us and their numbers remain with us,” she said. Moore told reporters measures were being implemented to encourage police to retrieve their exhibits and inform the centre about the status of matters that were no longer viable. “So over the next few months our number will veer towards normalcy and we will be able to assess our backlog if it still exists,” Moore said. She also said certain ballistic testing would be taken to the police armoire for examination and not the centre and that would also address some of the backlog. She was not of the view there was a shortage of forensic pathologists. An electronic monitoring system is to be implemented in March next year and preliminary inquiries will be abolished in August this year. She said the Chief Justice, Director of Public Prosecutions and the police all indicated they were on track for the scheduled abolition of the system of preliminary inquiry.
On another matter, Moore said consideration was being given to the establishment of a remand court close to the Remand Prison to resolve problems relating to transportation of inmates. Moore said Cabinet also agreed to employ an additional evidence technician, two forensic biologists and two scientific examiners in narcotics. Evidence technicians assist in processing evidence. She said the current turnaround time for narcotics analysis submissions was two years and there was a backlog of 1,600 cases. The approval for two additional scientific examiners in narcotics is intended to address that backlog.