Wednesday, January 24, 2007 Editorials: Protecting the crime scene
READING the news story that Cebu City Police Chief Patrocinio Comendador has ordered for his units training on preserving crime scenes is like reading about Iraqi cops barely coping with basic police work.
Cebu City is not primitive. Often touted as second to none, it is Queen City of the South. (A broadcaster covering last Sunday's Sinulog called it Queen City of the Philippines.)
Yet, in this Queen City, police efficiency seems not to have kept pace with its advances in other fields such as the arts, education, sports, and media.
Consider the city's record on crime. Cebu City has piled up more than 170 murders in two years, execution-style killings still unsolved to this day.
For a premier city where Christianity started and the Catholic Church espouses supreme value on human life, high record on summary murders and zero efficiency on solution are utterly disturbing.
Need for forensics
The reason police have cited for failing to solve any of the serial killings is lack of witnesses. What's that, give up when no one testifies?
Forensics should help. And forensics requires a well-protected crime scene.
Thus, the concern about the new police chief about making all cops, veterans and rookies alike, in Cebu City police, recognize the work ethic that the crime scene is sacred.
The police line can help cordon off the crime scene and keep curiosity seekers away. Often though, it is the cops themselves who are the pollutants.
Remember that hilarious lapse in which responding cops pocketed a ball pen, touched things and spots with bare hands, and, for finishing stroke, defecated in the hotel room CR?
Equipment and skill
Some old-timers in the force are skeptical about the fuss. If there's no piece of evidence lost or pilfered, they say, there's little use in collecting prints or pieces of hair or skin since there's no ready equipment or skill to process the evidence.
Most forensic work is done in Manila and results can take ages. The regional crime lab is far from the needed and wished-for facility.
Preserving the crime scene is important but it is only one step. Next, get the equipment and people for forensics work.
If Cebu City cannot do it alone, metro cities and towns, with the help of the national government, can make that great, unprecedented stride: Pool resources for a state-of-the-art forensics center right in Cebu.
