Police academy needs overhauling

Officers of the Nigeria Police during a workshop in Lagos have called for the rehabilitation of police academy in the state to ensure proper training of its officers.

"We [the Police] now know why we lose many cases we are prosecuting in the Court," said an Inspector of Police at the end of a two-day workshop on Crime Management, which was held in Ikeja, Lagos.

It was revealed that when the Nigeria Police says it is investigating a case, what the officers) in charge is doing is looking for eye witnesses and trying to obtain confessions, most times through torture and other physical abuse.

Since an accused person is presumed innocent until proven guilty, it means the Criminal Investigation Department has the responsibility of providing the evidence needed to prove the innocence or otherwise of the accused person.

However, it was learnt that eye witnesses and confessions are not enough to prove culpability in a court of law. Evidence must be presented which clearly link the accused with the crime and this feat has remained elusive to the Nigeria Police because they (and the general public) end up destroying, instead of collecting, traces left behind by a criminal at the crime scene.

Guiding principle

One of the guest speakers, Larry Barksdale, an Associate Professor of Forensic Science and a Detective Sergeant quoted Professor Edmond Locard, a pioneer of forensic science, as saying: "Wherever he [criminal] steps, whatever he touches, whatever he leaves, even unconsciously, will serve as a silent witness against him.

Not only his fingerprints or his footprints, but his hair, the fibres from his clothes, the glass he breaks, the tool mark he leaves, the paint he scratches, the blood or semen he deposits or collects. All of these and more bear mute witness against him.

This is evidence that does not forget. It is not confused by the excitement of the moment. It is not absent because human witnesses are. It is factual evidence.

Physical evidence cannot be wrong, it cannot perjure itself, it cannot be wholly absent. Only its interpretation can err. Only human failure to find it, study and understand it can diminish its value,"

Urgently needed

"[The] management of the scene pass from the first responder to the medical examiner, forensic scientists, and crime scene investigators," said Mr. Barksdale.

The first responders, in the Nigerian context, are usually the untrained members of the public who, while trying to express sympathy or get medical attention, often tamper with physical evidence that may be used to trace the criminal.

Also, it turned out that forensic science is a gamut of multidisciplinary fields which include: Physiological sciences (Forensic pathology, Forensic dentistry, Forensic anthropology, Forensic entomology, Forensic archaeology), Social sciences (Forensic psychology, Forensic psychiatry), Fingerprint analysis, Forensic accounting Ballistics, Body identification DNA profiling, Forensic arts, Forensic toxicology, Forensic footwear evidence, Questioned document examination, Computer forensics, Information forensics, Forensic linguistics, Vehicular accident reconstruction and others.

None of these disciplines is taught in the Police Academy; therefore, the Nigeria Police do not have experts in crime investigation.

It was resolved that the curriculum and standard of education of the Police Academy need urgent overhauling for Nigeria to make progress combating crime.