As promised, police are embarking on a special DNA project this week and are appealing to several hundred Bahamians to provide DNA samples to assist in crime-fighting efforts.
“This database will assist us with police investigations, particularly those cases where bodily fluids may have been shed, such as in homicides and sexual offences,” explained Chief Superintendent Quinn McCartney, who is the director of the Forensic Science Section of the Royal Bahamas Police Force.
Police are working with Tanya Simms, a Bahamian PHD student at Florida International University (FIU), on the project.
“In order for us to create this database, we need to take samples ﾖ blood and mouth swabs ﾖ from at least 500 volunteers,” Mr. McCartney told the Bahama Journal.
“The samples must be randomly taken and therefore we need to reach as many persons as possible to encourage them to participate. Additionally, we are trying to ensure that we obtain samples from persons descended from the major Family Islands.”
He assured that the process will be completely confidential ﾖ meaning that no name or information would be taken, and he said police scientists will destroy the samples after examining them.
For now, police plan only to keep those samples on file and intend to analyse them later in the year when a new police lab is operational. In the meantime, according to Mr. McCartney, officers continue to undergo training in the field of forensic science.
There are now 10 police experts who are reporting in court matters, and there are two others who are undergoing training.
The DNA collection effort will be totally voluntary. Police officials believe that it is an important way in which everyday citizens can assist in crime fighting.
“We are trying to determine the frequencies of DNA profiles of Bahamians and what we want to do is in cases where bodily fluids are shared, particularly in homicides or murders and sexual offences where there may be an assailant who may have been involved in a rape, we want to be able to trace the origin of the semen or blood that may have been left at the scene,” Mr. McCartney explained.
He added that determining certain DNA frequencies in the population would give an indication of the likelihood of finding a random individual.
“We need those frequencies to make comparisons so that once we get a suspect, the blood stains from that scene can be compared to the case stains and then we can determine the frequency or the probability of it not being or being that individual,” Mr. McCartney said.
If it sounds highly scientific, thatﾒs because it is.
Mr. McCartney assured that experts on the police force who work in the forensic science field are adequately qualified.
“I know that there are persons who have expressed that they donﾒt want to give the police their DNA because the police would put their DNA in all manners and places, but weﾒre a professional organisation, weﾒre professionals and weﾒre scientists, and so we have to maintain the highest ethical and scientific standards,” he said.
The DNA project is not to be confused with the provisions in the Police Service Bill, presently before parliament, which would empower the police to take intimate and non-intimate samples from suspects, although Mr. McCartney said the samples from the general population would go a long way in helping the police narrow in on a suspect.
Police will be taking samples at the College of the Bahamas this Thursday from 10am to 4pm; at the Mall-at-Marathon on Friday and Saturday from 10am to 6pm; and at the Harbour Bay Shopping Centre on Saturday from 10am to 6pm.
By: Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
