Our crime scene management
is anything but appropriate and in consonance with best practices. We might not
all have gone through detective training but our knowledge of the rudiments of
the subject tells us that something was not right at the Kumasi kidnap crime
scene. The ease with which people fidgeted with exhibits at the crime scene
after the rescue would definitely affect the integrity of the investigation.
People swarmed the crime
scene as if they were hunting for crabs on a marshy land. We expected that the
police would have secured the location immediately after the operation to
protect vital exhibits.
Crime scenes are
deliberately taped and secured for professional assessment of what happened and
the gathering of telltale materials. Without these, cases which appear
straightforward could suffer major deficiencies in the court of law.
What we observed in the
aftermath of the Kumasi rescue leaves much to be desired. One television
station, as it were, virtually moved its studio to the location.
There is no doubt that the
Kumasi crime scene should under normal circumstances be secured and isolated
for the next one month or so to allow for thorough professional work by
detectives working on the case.
We are told that given the
high-profile nature of the case, it is being handled in Accra. While that is in
order we shudder to think about the integrity damage that the crime scene would
suffer and thus making the work of the detectives rather difficult.
What would the top flight
detectives charged with managing the case find when they mandatorily land in
Kumasi? Unwanted fingerprints will, of course, blur those of the kidnappers.
We are in a country
suffering the drawbacks of a near non-existing database of citizens especially
criminals and so when nuisances crop up at crimes scenes they only turn into
conundrums what should not be.
The machetes, knives and
other items strewn all over the crime scene must have been tampered with by
curious residents of Sawaba and journalists who thronged the place without knowing
the negative implication of their curiosity.
Let the CID engage
journalists through the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) for lessons in
crime scene management so that the inappropriate scenes observed in Kumasi are prevented
in future.
The lack of knowledge in
such matters has led to acrimony between the police and the media in some
instances.
While the media is eager
to report the news and would easily be carried away to the extent of acting in
ways which stall investigations, detectives are protective of details the
release of which would compromise the quality of their work.
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