New forensic lab yet to do any testing for police

The recently opened Guyana Forensic Science Laboratory has not yet started conducting tests for police investigations although it had been touted that the facility would boost the investigative capacity of law enforcement in the crime fight.

Since the announcement in 2010 that money was set aside in the budget to construct the facility, it was expected that it would be a police forensic lab and that among the staff would be the ranks attached to the police force’s crime lab.

According to Crime Chief Leslie James, a merger of the two facilities will take place in the immediate future. He said the process has started but he did not give a timeframe for when it is expected to be completed. “We do have our ranks who are posted there so eventually what we will see is a smooth transaction from what we have right now over there,” he said, while adding that four ranks from the force’s crime lab have already been placed at the new lab.

He said that the four ranks will be in a learning environment where they will eventually become au fait