Philippines now requires evidence entry into IBIS
Posted by Andre Demers on Mon, Apr 18, 2011
Earlier this month, the Philippines National Police began requiring all police to submit evidence to the Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory. This move will not only help police cross-reference evidence from ultiple crime scenes, but will help build the country's ballistic database.
From Journal Online:
PNP Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management Director Arturo G. Cacdac, Jr. said the firearms, cartridges and slugs will be subjected for capturing and cross-matching through the Integrated Ballistics Identification System.
He said the field investigator or investigator-on-case will no longer submit the items to the prosecutor. Instead, only a photograph of the firearm and a receipt issued by the local Crime Laboratory Office will be filed to the court.
Should the prosecutor require the submission of the firearm, he should subpoena the Crime Lab to present the weapon.
“It is also imperative that the chain of custody be strictly observed and documented. As much as possible, the investigator-on case should personally submit the recovered firearms/shells/slugs to the Crime Lab,” Cacdac said.
He said all police regional directors and directors of the NOSUs, including the Highway Patrol Group, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, Maritime Group and the Intelligence Group, shall be held accountable for failure by their investigators-on-case to observe the procedure.
The mandatory examination of firearms-related evidence was aimed at correcting the practice of field investigators of not submitting the recovered firearms for cross-matching.
Cacdac said the practice does not only deprive the PNP the chance to cross-match the firearms, slugs/bullets and shells, but also the opportunity of building up its Ballistic Crime Database or data from ballistic evidence taken from the crime scene.
The IBIS is a computer-based system that gives the PNP the capability to efficiently cross-match firearms.
Read full story here.