ENG-1991 — Page 316

PUBLIC ORDER

The Way Ahead

The ICAC, now in its 18th year of operation, has become part of the fabric of society. Corruption is no longer a way of life as it was in the 1970's. Given continued firm public support, the ICAC is confident that the problem will be kept under control in the years ahead.

Government Laboratory

The Forensic Science Division of the Government Laboratory forms an important link between law and order and judiciary services by providing scientific, analytical and consultancy services to the relevant government departments. During the year, it was actively engaged in the scientific investigation of such diverse crimes as armed robbery, homicide, arson, fatal traffic accidents, commercial fraud, manufacture and trafficking of narcotic drugs and possession of controlled pharmaceutical preparations.

The division provides scientific evidence which can be instrumental in helping law enforcement agencies and the crown prosecutor decide whether or not to prosecute and, by giving expert opinion in respect of scientific evidence, either in the form of a statement or personally in the witness box, professional officers of the division assist the court in criminal trials at all levels. In addition, the division provides a twenty-four-hour scene-of-crime service to law enforcement agencies in Hong Kong. During the year, nearly 700 crime scenes were attended with scientific evidence collected at the scene of crime subsequently examined in the division's laboratory.

There continues to be escalating demand for expertise for an increasing variety of forensic problems, which ultimately require more stringent examination to satisfy modern court standards. A new DNA Profiling Section has been created to enhance the capability of the division and to provide more discriminating evidence in serious crime cases. The preliminary research to establish a local DNA profile database is nearly complete and it is expected that this powerful technique can soon be applied to casework. This will help relieve work related to conventional blood group analysis as well as contact trace examinations, such as fibre and glass transfer. As Hong Kong is one of the world's major financial centres, forgery and fraud cases continue to increase dramatically. During the year, there were several clandestine document factory cases related to illegal printing of travel documents and counterfeit banknotes, and manufacture of forged credit cards. Such examinations place high demands on the individual skills of the document specialists not only in the laboratory but also in the courtroom, where rigorous cross-examination tends to be the norm.

Another area of the division's work concerns drugs and forensic toxicology which deals with definitive (statutory) evidence which is method intensive. The division recognises the advantages of automated analytical systems, such as easy sample preparation, high sample throughput, unattended overnight operation, accuracy and excellent reliability. Assay of heroin is now fully automated, generating a turnaround time for routine daily seizure cases of just five and a half working days. For the other drugs of abuse, items submitted to the laboratory continue to increase, particularly in seizures of methylamphetamine hydrochloride, the crystal form of which is commonly known as 'Ice'. With analytical results and statistical information provided from the division's laboratory, a new sentencing tariff has been handed down by the Court of Appeal to curb the rising trend in abuse of this stimulant.

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