Sunday, August 24, 2008 Modern forensic science help solve crimes
DESPITE their lack of mobility, personnel of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Crime Laboratory in Baguio and Benguet provided the necessary technical assistance requested for 104 criminal investigations this past month.
According to Superintendent Alfredo Lopez, head of the local PNP Crime Laboratory, since most of the crimes committed here in the past month were robbery cases, their Scene of the Crime Operation (Soco) teams are conducting continuous examinations of latent fingerprints submitted to their office, resulting in the successful identification of suspects involved in multiple Bolt-cutter gang robbery incidents in Baguio recently.
He said one of these cases, which involved a robbery at the Patria de Baguio, was solved by comparing the latent fingerprints lifted from the crime scene with those of other incidents reported recently within the city, resulting also in the successful solution of the crimes.
"Upon the request of Baguio intelligence policemen, our personnel were able to properly identify suspects involved in multiple robbery cases, with the use of forensic scientific methods," Lopez explained.
"Moreover, our medico-legal officer, Superintendent Jaime Rodrigo Leal, is doing his best to give accurate findings to the bereaved families of death victims in his autopsy reports, which would lead to tracing the assailants in the murder and homicide cases we handle," he continued.
He said aside from the 104 official requests received by from other law enforcement agencies for forensic examinations and three other personal requests, they have also conducted one field laboratory operation during the period covered. (ENO)
