ALL LAW-ABIDING and justice-seeking Barbadians would have felt great pridein the recent work of the Royal BarbadosPolice Force (RBPF) that led to the arrestand charging of a suspect in an 11-year-old“cold case” crime involving the disappearanceof a pre-teen girl.
This justifiable pride in the accomplishmentby the RBPF would have been based on the knowledge that cold cases in crime-fightingcircles generally involve incidents in which the police have over a long period of time met great difficulty in bringing their investigations to successful conclusions.
We are therefore very encouraged bothby this breakthrough and by the disclosurethat it was made possible by the collaborativework of the force’s well established units anda new body of which there was no widespread public knowledge. We are further pleased that these bodies worked well together and did notfight over perceived “turf” as can very well happen in the best of institutions.
The new RBPF unit that reportedlyplayed a major role in this particular casewas its Truth Verification Unit, which ismanned by officers who were specially trainedat the prestigious Canadian School of Polygraphto deal with the lie detector mechanism recently acquired by the force.
Also partnering in the successfulinvestigations were the very importantCrime Analysis Branch, which deals withsoftware and intelligence gathering, theInformation Technology Branch and theMajor Crime Unit, whose personnelbrought their indispensable skills andexperience to bear.
From all reports, the success by theRBPF in its relentless march to justicein this more than decade-old case hasheavily underscored the pivotal role thatmodern technology and its trained operatorscan play in helping to bring resolution tonot only one particular crime, but also in the overall growth and development ofthe force’s capacity and capability tocombat crime in general.
We also wish to commendCommissioner Darwin Dottin and histeam of senior officers for their decisionto intervene in yesterday’s Brass Tackscall-in radio programme in order to providethe general public with further informationon how this recent advancement cameabout and on the RBPF’s stance concerningother issues.
All in all, the past few days for theRBPF have been ones with which thewhole society can feel pleased, and weurge all to build on this success by mutually enhancing levels of cooperation, assistanceand respect as we work together to makeBarbados a safer and more civil society.