A senior police official said while it is understandable that people who lost their loved ones or property to crime would be upset when the cases are not solved, oftentimes the police are wrongfully blamed for it.
Senior Sergeant Marlon Proctor of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) said the main reason that cases go cold is, more often than not, because people are not reporting what they know about the crime(s).
“It is quite logical for the people to be upset. But we, the police, need evidence, we need that assistance from the community because when the crime is committed, most times the police are not there,” he said,
Proctor added that it is the job of the investigators to interrogate people, who live, work or were traversing the area to get information and in most cases, the police succeed in solving cases with their help.
He, however, noted that when this fails, the public should not blame or condemn the police.
“If the people who are in the area cannot provide us with information, if there is no forensic evidence on the scene, such as a shoe impression or fingerprint, then there are times when the case would have become stagnated,” the senior sergeant said.
More in today’s Daily Observer.