PCA director wants more resources for forensics sciences centre

Police Complaints Authority (PCA) head David West has once more appealed for increased resources to be placed into the Forensics Sciences Centre as the Centre is a key component in the criminal justice system.

He was addressing a PCA community outreach meeting at Lengua Presbyterian Primary school, Papourie Road, Lengua village on Thursday night.

And with Naparima MP Rodney Charles in the audience, he encouraged parliamentarians to support any moves to increase resources at the Centre.

Speaking to reporters afterwards, he said there were several investigations which were not yet complete as the PCA was awaiting certificates of analysis from the Centre.

“Forensics science is one of the stakeholders that the PCA uses in its investigations to determine if a firearm was used and the type of ammunition. We have several matters pending before the Forensics Sciences Centre awaiting certificates of analysis and this is slowing down our investigations and slowing down to determine whether or not a disciplinary offence has taken place.

So at the outreach, we were just asking for more resources to be put into the Forensics Science Centre which is a key body in the criminal justice system.”

West said those resources include additional analysts and more forensics pathologists.

Asked how the police stations in the southern half of the island compared with those of the northern and central divisions, he said one of the main complaints was that of neglect of duty.

“The northern and central divisions were the ones where complaints hail from, in the south and southwestern divisions, complaints aren’t that many but you still have complaints of neglect of duty which seems to be raising its head quite often.”

Naparima MP Rodney Charles described the community outreach meeting as an ‘excellent opportunity” to give citizens from rural areas an understanding of their rights under the law.

“Rather than just complaining and cursing in the background, they would now have a fair idea of the powers and the limitations of the PCA.

They are now being advised on how to access the resources of the PCA, especially for citizens in rural areas who tend to feel afraid of what is happening in TT.”