FBI briefs local cops, journalists on crime scene preservation

Ranking officials of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) briefed local policemen and journalists on the proper handling of evidence during a seminar on managing crime scene investigation held yesterday at the Manila Police District (MPD) Academy.

The seminar was part of the program of MPD director Chief Superintendent Roberto Rosales to make his police investigators more attuned to the newest techniques in crime scene investigation, assuring the solution of crimes and conviction of suspects. 

News reporters and photographers were invited to the seminar since “some of them have unwittingly tampered the crime scene due to their eagerness for a scoop,” according to Chief Inspector Alejandro Yanquiling Jr. of the homicide section, which sponsored the one-day seminar. Criminology students from the City College of Manila also attended.

According to Yanquiling, the country’s crime scene investigations are susceptible to “contamination” since everybody, including politicians and ranking police and government officials, wants to be at the scene for media mileage, destroying vital evidence in their wake.

He said that in other countries, everybody respects the police cordon and refrains from entering the prohibited zone to preserve the evidence at the crime scene.           

Yanquiling, a foreign-trained investigator, expressed confidence that Manila policemen will be at par with their foreign counterparts with the new techniques they have learned at the seminar.              – Nestor Etolle