On February 13, pathologists at the Forensic Science Centre acknowledged that their backlog of bodies awaiting autopsies had begun to exceed their capacity to handle. The pathologists had 30 cadavers to work on that day and well after closing time, families and hearses waited outside the centre. Some bodies spent the day in hearses parked outside the centre before being sent away.
Two days later, forensic pathologist Dr Valery Alexandrov called on the government to improve the situation at the centre. He complained of overworked pathologists, poor working conditions and a working relationship with the police that desperately needed improvement.Minister of Justice Christlyn Moore responded that things were "running smoothly" at the centre.
It wasn't the first time that Dr Alexandrov had expressed concerns about the workload, which he has argued are not in alignment with international standards for a forensic facility. In 2012, Dr Alexandrov did 437 of the centre's 904 autopsies.
On April 4, the government announced the construction of a new Forensic and Pathology Service Centre to be part of the judicial centre project planned for 62 acres of land at Carlsen Field. Just two months after dismissing Dr Alexandrov's concerns, the Justice Minister seemed willing to acknowledge that the workload at the Forensic Centre was formidable, saying that there is a global shortage of forensic scientists and admitting that there was little that the government could do to "sexy up the job."
Dr Alexandrov was not impressed. The next day, the pathologist acknowledged only learning of the plan in the newspaper, and argued that the core problems at the existing centre needed to be addressed first.
"All the problems are internal, administrative problems," he said. On Thursday, Mrs Moore was ready to attach blame to police officers for failing to update the Forensic Centre on cases that were discontinued or settled before hearings, leaving such evidence to come part of the staggering backlog of samples awaiting testing.
How bad is this backlog? The Minister of Justice acknowledged a backlog of 1,600 cases for narcotics analysis and a turnaround time for such samples of two years.To her credit, Mrs Moore did offer a strategy to reduce the workload at the Forensic Centre. Some ballistic tests would now go to the police armoire, and the ministry would hire an evidence technician, two forensic biologists and two scientific examiners in narcotics.
More compellingly, the Justice Minister promised that police officers will be expected to retrieve their exhibits and provide better information to the centre about cases that were no longer viable. That seems more in alignment with the problems that Dr Alexandrov had lamented, the lack of a clear system of reporting and updates that would allow police officers and the Forensic Centre to focus on relevant work and the timely delivery of justice.
It would be retrograde to ask trained police officers to do the work that clerical staff would handle more efficiently. A system that reports and updates the status of cases throughout the justice system, managed by bureaucratic specialists and suitable technology, would be both more useful and sustainable as a response to the problem.
