Police Forensic Science Centre 10 has become invaluable for security operations in the restive South with its Forensics Integrated Database System (Fids) helping to piece together the jigsaw puzzles of each attack.
The forensic work being done at the centre has been so successful in helping to identify attackers and speeding up judicial proceedings that, under the supervision of Pol Maj Gen Predee Pongsethasant, the centre has become an essential part of training for senior civilians and police officers.
The Fids collects forensic evidence, including ballistics, fingerprints, DNA, blood, bomb material and shrapnel, and correlates them to look for any relationships that might point to the perpetrators of violent incidents.
Lt Gen Prakan Chonlayuth, the 4th Army chief, was so impressed with the database’s work that he ordered all heads of military units and task forces in the South to be briefed at the centre so field operations did not undermine the work of the forensic experts.
Maj Gen Predee said that this was extremely important.
“Everything at a crime scene has its own life and we have to scientifically untangle all the individual pieces of evidence through a credible chain of custody so that criminal lawsuits can be weighed with fairness in the courtroom,” he said.
Two years ago the Yala-based centre became the first in the country to boast a complete Fids, and has received certification for crime scene investigation that includes not only murders but bombing and arson attacks. The centre has set up a special fingerprints database of 35,190 samples for the deep South — which include latent fingerprint and side palm identification — that are linked to 11 million fingerprints nationwide under the Criminal Records Division, he said. Examining the collected biological and DNA evidence from people and materials (41,047 samples) and ballistic analysis have helped improve the operational and i nvestigative capacity of police and prosecutions. According to research by the Office of the Attorney General early this year, 4,686 investigations (out of 7,918 cases from January 2004-July 2012) were sent to prosecutors, but only 907 cases were indicted.
Of these, the Court of First Instance convicted 206 defendants on all charges and 108 defendants for some charges. The rest of the cases were dismissed. The Appeal Court upheld only 94 verdicts from the first court, while the Supreme Court upheld just 18 judgements from the Appeal Court.
Maj Gen Predee stressed that the lawful and uninterrupted chain of custody of scientific evidence was essential throughout the judicial process if convictions are to succeed and stand in higher courts.
“With the Fids, we hope the information could be a springboard to upgrade the national system, as Asean will be integrated more closely in 2015, allowing criminals and perpetrators freer mobility across borders,” he said.
From the ballistics database, as of October, of the 21,190 cartridges and 859 bullets the centre analysed, 896 guns (523 war weapons and 373 registered weapons) were re-used in southern attacks while 5,407 weapons were used once. The Fids helped link the torching of six schools in Pattani’s Thung Yang Daeng and Mayo districts on Oct 12 with another incident a week later.
It also found that the same weapons had been used in an incident in Narathiwat’s Ra Ngae district on Feb 9, one in Pattani’s Yarang district, and an incident in Pattani’s Thung Yang Daeng district on July 20.
After analysing DNA on weapons found during the Oct 17 rubber plantation raid in Pattani, the centre found links to some 20 other criminal cases.
Sopon Thipbamroong, chief of the Public Prosecution Office of Special Case Litigation Region 9, said the Fids had helped to identify many suspects, and analysis of ballistics and DNA had helped to establish that perpetrators in the deep South are not common criminals but operate in networks.
By identifying the perpetrators more quickly, wrongdoers were more likely to be caught and innocent suspects cleared, Mr Sopon said, adding that investigations, prosecutions and hearings could be done faster than two years ago.
DNA from tape binding an electrical detonation device in the Rue So bombings four years ago was matched to that of a Yala bombings suspect this year, identifying those involved in the older case.
“Several terrorist cases now have defendants,” he said.