Most of the time prosecutors will tell you the suspect voluntarily admit that he/she committed to the crime alleged by the police. There is no trial to establish guilt. It is human nature to confess. And sometimes the police help human nature along with threats, intimidation, torture, and promises. The good cop, bad cop routine has been done in hundreds of TV shows and films. When the suspect maintains his innocence, the Crown carries the burden of establishing guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Science has helped providing tools to assist the Crown in proving guilt. From fingerprints to DNA evidence, a case can be built that the suspect committed the alleged crime. Often a jury will convict based on such evidence. By attaching the word ‘scientific’ to an assessment of crime evidence, is to markedly increase the credibility of the link of such evidence to the accused.
Recently the Houston police department was in the news concerning its crime lab results between the years 1987 to 2002. Three death penalty cases were thrown into doubt as a result of the review. The independent review concluded that reviewing “about 2,700 cases originally analyzed by the lab’s six forensic departments. So far, 1,100 cases have been reviewed. Nearly 40 percent of DNA cases and 23 percent of blood evidence cases had major problems, the report found.” Link: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/10/houston-crime-lab-disturbing-findings.html
The Report concluded, “Our work to date in reviewing cases analyzed by these sections reflects a level of performance completely unacceptable in a forensic science laboratory providing critical support to the criminal justice system.”
The questions raised by the Report are more basic in Asia. Would the Thai police department authorize such an independent analysis of crime lab results? Police forces have their own cultures and turfs to protect. Outsiders are rarely welcome to walk in and look over the operation, study the process and techniques, and produce a critical analysis from the research. The transition from a policing culture that is self-contained and largely beyond the process of periodic outsider review is a difficult one. It takes political will to foster such change. And it takes pressure from the public to demand political action to begin with.
Crimes don’t come in a single size that fits all. Most of the time we think of crime as the thief, the robber, rapist, burglar, killer or mugger. The popular press in Thailand regularly reports on the latest crime in this category.
A recent example reported in Pattaya People documents a refrigerator theft in Sriracha. The thief was heisting the fridge from the home of Mr. Chit who happened to be 84-year-old, well armed and caught the thief in the act. Mr. Chit set after the burglar with his gun, firing it in the air. The thief took flight, dumping Mr. Chit’s fridge in a nearby bushy area. The 84-year-old didn’t get a good look at the thief but suspected it was the same guy who a couple of days earlier had run off with his water pump and gas cooker. After that theft, Mr. Chit decided to arm himself. The police are conducting an investigation.
Mr. Chit’s fridge inspected by authorities
In the second category of crimes, the ‘suspects’, ‘victims’, and ‘state authorities’ clash as part of in a political crisis that has spun out of control. You don’t have to look far around the world to find one of those in the Middle East, North Africa, Asia, or America. Most of us remember the recent riots and looting in London. And much the same happened in Vancouver after the Stanley Cup match ended in defeat for the Canadian team.
On the photo above you can zoom in to identify the individual faces in the crowd. An example of how technology makes it very difficult to hide in a crowd.
What role does forensics play when the scale of violence ramps up into the hundreds or thousands of people who are committing ‘criminal acts’ in full public view? Cultural, political and social factors guarantee that there will be no one answer as one reviews the reaction of authorities from country to country.
Ultimately the professionalism of a police force is linked to its ability to adapt to the modern scientific methods used to solve crimes. When crimes may have a political component, the science part of the equation is under threat. Thailand had gone through a difficult period since 2010 when the line between politics and crime blurred, overlapped, leaving many unanswered questions as to culpability and responsibility for deaths and injuries.
Science offers a methodology for assessing evidence and linking it to suspected wrongdoers, but such methods run political consequences. So long as the fear of such consequences outweigh the results of scientific evaluation by independent assessors, science will take a backseat to politically forces divided over the fundamental issue over government reach and action where agents of the state may have committed the crime.
We can smile when 84-year-old Mr. Chit sets after a local thief, fridge in his arms, with his gun in hand in hot pursuit. But the smile fades quickly when the state authorities are the ones doing the shooting and they are not necessarily firing in the air.
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