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Jamaica seeks to enhance forensic investigation with DNA technology

Xinhua, May 1, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Jamaican government has quickened its pace to introduce biometric technologies in forensic investigations as the country continues to face harsh security challenges.

Minister of National Security Peter Bunting tabled the Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) Evidence Act to the House of Representatives on Wednesday, urging lawmakers to support the legislation which allows security forces to use DNA technology in the fight against crime.

Bunting said the legislation would provide for the keeping, maintaining, and operating of a consolidated forensic DNA database, to be known as the National DNA Register, for the purpose of forensic investigation and human identification.

Jamaica has the capability to carry out DNA testing over the years, but according to the minister, the country's current law does not authorize crime investigators to compulsorily take DNA samples from suspects.

Bunting said the new legislation would pave the way for the full use of the new technology in fighting crime, simplify the administration of justice, save time and money, and facilitate early detection, arrest and conviction of offenses.

The bill is supported by Derrick Smith, the opposition spokesman on national security.

It could be "a positive and welcome crime-fighting tool", he said, while complaining that the government had moved too slowly to push forward the legislation process.

"This legislation has been outstanding for almost a decade, and where we left it in 2011, we are surprised that it has taken the government over three years to complete that process," he said, adding that he is happy to see the bill finally came to the house.

Bunting admitted the delay, but called the "pathbreaking" legislation "an elephantine gestation across three administrations." He hoped the adoption of DNA testing would help convict offenders in some difficult cases and exonerate those wrongly accused of crimes.

The act came with deteriorating security conditions in Jamaica. The island nation, whose population is under 3 million, has witnessed some 351 murder cases up to date this year, the highest in the past five years. Endi