Legal experts at the 2011 Forensic Science Services’ Conference held at the Maharaja Conference Centre in Gaborone praised the Botswana Police Service (BPS) for significant improvement in crime investigation and detection and also blamed the organization for poor evidence gathering and labelling of exhibits that result in failure to secure conviction in certain offences. They urged the BPS to be more professional by benchmarking with international experts. In her prosecution view on the challenges facing forensic evidence in Botswana, Ms Susan Mangori of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions said she acknowledges that forensic science evidence is able to produce a defence that can stop unnecessary or wrong prosecutions, but emphasised that the circumstantial nature of the evidence required a forensic expert who can prove his or her expertise by placing before court his or her qualifications, experience, the level of training and institutions attended to prove their competence. “In cases where one has not had any formal training and relying on experience, a lengthy experience is usually required”, Ms Mangori said. She was against the idea of putting the forensic scientist at the tail end of investigations, saying the investigating officer may leave out some valuable evidence at the scene. The best practice, in her view, would be for the forensic scientists to team up with investigating officers at the scene of crime and obtain the evidence themselves. She however advised the police to improve professionalism by ensuring proper evidence gathering and labelling of exhibits. She said the BPS’s practice of putting names of victims and suspects of offences in forensic reports is unnecessary, saying in the interest of impartiality; names of suspects should be omitted. She was also worried by the current placement of the Forensic Science Laboratory under the Botswana Police Service, saying the set up may be perceived as being biased in favour of government or BPS.

A local attorney Busang Manewe of Bogopa, Manewe, Tobedza and Company, like Ms Mangori, acknowledged the importance of forensic science in the resolution of disputes before courts, saying forensic evidence is more paramount where there are no witnesses in the commission of crime as it could be a determining factor in the outcome of a trial. He urged forensic experts to take their work seriously and avoid being partisan in the testimony before the courts. He emphasised the duty of a forensic expert as being to assist the court to come to a just and fair decision by giving a balanced appraisal of all his observations. According to Mr Manewe, “This duty requires that the expert disclose to court all those details of his findings which are both favourable and not favourable to the prosecution case. He feels it is not the duty of the expert to advance a particular party’s case by only feeding the court with evidence favourable to that party and withholding that which is unfavourable.” “The value of expert evidence depends more on the nature of evidence, the professional qualification of the expert together with the experience that the expert have in the field of expertise. If you give partisan evidence and get exposed, it compromises the integrity not only of the Botswana Forensic Science Services and yourself but the entire field of expertise you represent. Mr Manewe said the value of expert evidence is often affected by poor handling of exhibits, packaging, collection of evidence, storing of evidence and flawed chain of custody of exhibits.

In his opening remarks, the Deputy Commissioner of Police responsible for operations Mr Keabetswe Makgophe said the theme of the Conference “Credible, Relevant, and Valid Forensic Science: Key to Improved Crime Detection” challenged the Botswana Police forensic experts to identify ways in which they can further contribute to the improvement of detection rates in violent and intrusive crimes such as burglaries, house breaking and robberies which create insecurity among communities. He urged forensic experts to always expedite their analysis of cases to assist the courts to provide fair and credible judgements in time.  He also advised them to use the right personnel, right material resources and the right management structures to produce quality evidence.

The Director of Forensic Science Services Senior Assistant Commissioner Dr Helen Tumediso-Magora had earlier on revealed that the 2nd Conference which followed the first held in Mahalapye last year intended to promote cooperation, service delivery and efficiency among the various role players in the scientific investigation system. It also intended to set standards of operation, professional conduct and harmonize protocols that guided the various fields of expertise within the profession of forensic science. She believed that new technologies and scientific developments now available in the public domain could be harnessed to the law enforcement fraternity to offer safety to communities. She said it was becoming difficult to solve certain crimes using the traditional methods hence the need to exploit scientific methods.