Posted on 08/03/2009 4:40:18 PM PDT by SandRat
BAGHDAD –– Seven Iraqi investigators completed the Latent Fingerprint Analysis Course at the High Institute of the Baghdad Police College, July 29, in preparation for work in crime scene investigation (CSI).
The students demonstrated their newly acquired skills to international media present for the graduation ceremony. Students were interviewed about their work in the course and how it has prepared them for future work in CSI.
Overwhelming enthusiasm was the order of the day as the students showed their skills in lifting fingerprints off of various types of items, like paper bags, aluminum cans, cotton shirts and pieces of glass.
“These seven students have come from all over Iraq to participate in this advanced fingerprint analysis course,” said John Spicier, fingerprint expert and trainer for the course. “These crime scene investigators already have a strong background in collecting prints when they get here. This course teaches them to analyze and compare those prints.”
Under the Security Agreement signed between the U.S. and Iraq, a partnership continues where mutual cooperation and training add to the skills that will help Iraq develop a system of justice based on rule of law. These courses are a large part of that agreement.
“I’ve been a police officer for many years here in Iraq,” said one student. “I’ve never seen the level of professionalism and enthusiasm that I’ve seen here at this course and with these students. I can say that I’m proud to be an Iraqi Police officer.”
The fingerprint database in Iraq now has more than one million prints stored. The training these students received during the six-week course will help them to compare those prints of current investigations to the prints in the database. This should help to resolve many cases and expedite future ones. The professionalization of the Iraqi Police and investigators is just another way the Security Agreement is being realized in Iraq today.
Next hit TV series?
Could be....
This is interesting. Iraq is a Civil law country, which historically didn't place much emphasis on forensic evidence. Ask an Iraqi judge if there was any fingerprint or DNA evidence, half the time your reaction is, "Why? He confessed."
Admittedly, in American law, confessions are sometimes my best evidence. Still, the whizz-bang CSI stuff is very new to the Iraqi mindset.
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