The Arson Investigation Team within the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force is tasked with conducting assessments of fire scenes; however, according to officials, the team has had its challenges since it was organized in March 2019.
During the ZIZ radio programme “Policing with You” on Thursday, Corporal Carlton Duncan of the Arson Investigation Team shared that some of these challenges faced by the team when executing their duties include securing the scene and transportation.
Director of the Forensic Department, Latoya Lake-Marshall added that when the team started, they had a backlog of paperwork because they did not establish which senior personnel would sign off on them in order to proceed.
Another challenge outlined by Lake-Marshall is the shipping issue with getting machinery on the island to do accelerant testing.
She said currently samples have to be sent off-island and there is a long wait period to get the results, so having the machine to do the testing on the island would be ideal.