The DNA Project prides itself in reaching the public and first responders at a crime scene to make sure they understand the importance of protecting the evidence left behind. Most notably is our new ‘Train the Trainer’ course which is a full day programme developed to educate trainers from various institutions on how to teach crime scene preservation by giving them the background knowledge to allow them to integrate this information into their own course work.
Grant with the paramedics from the College of Emergency Care
These past couple months we have spoken to 1269 people in KZN, Gauteng and Western Cape., of those, 433 were from SAPS and 240 metro police officers, the rest comprise paramedics, security personnel and ordinary citizens. With us reaching this already large number of people being trained on a regular basis, once the ‘Train the Trainer’ workshops are up and running the amount of people trained in crime scene preservation can only increase.
Workshops are not the only thing The DNA Project focuses on: one of our main concerns is the change required in legislation which will allow the police to finally use a National DNA Database as an effective criminal intelligence tool. We are still awaiting the final report on Portfolio Committee’s international fact finding mission from over 3 months ago. You can rest assured that we will continue to put pressure on the committee until this information is finally released at whch time we shall be reporting back on their findings.
Additionally, Vanessa Lynch and Carolyn Hancock will be presenting at the 3rd Annual African DNA Forensics Conference in Pretoria at the end of the month.
With such a strong body of highly qualified professionals working for the DNA Project, we can only reach more and more people every single day, making sure that the average South African citizen as well as first responders are aware of the importance DNA evidence in catching and convicting criminals.
Grant Godsmark
