Global Crime Law Enforcement Agencies

Questions: 1. Thread: Unlike American Television programs, crime scene examination in Australia is conducted primarily by sworn police officers who have few if any scientific qualifications. Is there a role for civilians to be employed in Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as Crime Scene specialists? 2. Thread: Police should not have the power to take fingerprints as it is an invasion of privacy and civil rights. Critically discuss. Answers: 1. The crime scene investigators are the law enforced personnel who specializes in collecting and scrutinizing the evidences that are taken from the crime scenes. The Law enforcement agencies, very often, bring together different personnel and designate them as crime scene investigators. In Australia, whenever there is a crime scene, the sworn in police officers who, more or less, are specialized in collecting and evaluating the evidences related to the crime scenes usually investigate it (White, 2016). The television shows featuring forensic dramas have made a huge impact on the concept of the public about the crime scene investigators. However, in Australia, the examination of the crime scenes is very different from what is shown on the television shows like CSI. These forensic dramas shows that the civil forensic specialists and the detectives are the ones who makes the initial investigation of the crime scenes whereas, in reality the sworn in police officers, possessing minimal knowledge about forensic science, investigates a crime scene (Butler, 2016). The foreign experts must investigate the investigation of a crime scene, to be effective. Although the police officers are trained to investigate a crime scene but their lack of specific knowledge to organize and process the evidence, unlike the civilian foreign specialist, may lead to misplacement of the evidences. Further, the involvement of the civilian forensic experts in the crime scene investigation would enable the police officers to concentrate more on their part of specialization, which is to collect and evaluate the evidences in order to prevent any erroneous convictions in the future. 2. Fingerprint identification is a fundamental criminal investigation technique owing to its uniqueness. Fingerprints of every individual are different therefore the accused is easily identified (Maltoni, Cappelli Meuwly, 2017). Although the significance of fingerprints cannot be undervalued, the technique is often considered as an invasion of civil rights and privacy rights. The Criminal Act 1958 has outlined statutory provisions regarding the procedure to be followed by the police officers to take fingerprints. Section 464 K of the Act states that a police officer is empowered to take the fingerprints of any person above 15 years who is believed to have committed any indictable offence. Similarly, the police officers are prohibited from taking fingerprints of children below 10 years. The right to life is more important than the right to privacy. The fingerprints are matched to identify the offenders and defend the rights of the innocents. Moreover, section 464 K (2) ensures that the civil rights are protected as the persons are acknowledged with the reason for taking their fingerprints (Leo, 2015). Therefore, it is evident that if fingerprints were taken following the guidelines stipulated under S. 474 K of the Act, it would not amount to an infringement of privacy and civil rights. Reference List Butler, M. (2016). 2 The Crime Scene.Crime Scene to Court Fourth Edition: The Essentials of Forensic Science, 34. Leo, W. (2015).Fingerprint identification. LawTech Publishing Group. Maltoni, D., Cappelli, R., Meuwly, D. (2017). Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems: From Fingerprints to Fingermarks. InHandbook of Biometrics for Forensic Science(pp. 37-61). Springer International Publishing. White, P. (Ed.). (2016).Crime Scene to Court Fourth Edition: The Essentials of Forensic Science. Royal Society of Chemistry.