Members of the general public may know about the National Forensic Science Service. This is the group of civilian authorities who work with the police to help solve crimes, and prosecute perpetrators. You will always encounter these experts at crime scenes collecting evidence, taking photographs, or trying assist police in one way or the other to preserve important elements of a crime, to hopefully present before a Supreme Court judge in a full trial.
They do so to the best of their abilities, and they are public servants, which means that you personally don't have to pay them a cent to do their job. 2 days ago, the Government of Belize sent out a press release warning members of the general public not to try and bribe or induce these experts.
when we got the opportunity this afternoon this to speak with the Director of the National Forensic Science Services at another event, we asked him if his staff has recently been facing civilians who have been trying to influence them and the way they do their job. He told us that nothing like that has happened recently, and that the press release was more of a public service announcement. Here's how he explained why:
Gian Cho - Executive Director, National Forensic Science Service
"Last week Monday was World Anti-Corruption Day or something to that effect. It hasn't been happening recently [but] over the past few months, if not years, members of the public seemed to have gotten some kind of the wrong impression that they have to pay for certain services. Whether it involves services at the laboratory, post-mortem services for forensics, and we just wanted - we felt again, given the fact that World Anti-Corruption Day passed recently, given the fact that from time to time, I, myself, get some calls asking to try and speed up some analysis. I have to inform the public that that's not how it works. We go through our clients, which are the police department and the Office of the DPP, and furthermore, that's why people pay their taxes. The government provides the service for free. So, to advise the public, don't offer any public officers funds or other forms of payment to get services done which are their rights as citizens of Belize, and non-citizens as well. Once it's a police case, the lab does our analysis. We have our budget for those purposes, and it was a reminder again, in the spirit of transparency that this is how it works. You don't have to pay. It's not a private service that we provide."
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