Belize Security Forces Undergo UN-Led Shooting Incident Reconstruction Training

This week 16 participants from various departments across Belize, are participating in a “Shooting Incident Reconstruction Course” hosted by the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean. 

Designed for enhancing forensic and investigator skills to better comb shooting crime scenes, members from the Police Department, Forensic Unit, and the Belize Defense Force will be going over soft skills to aid in investigations, learn the different types of ammunition and how they interact with surrounding objects when discharged. Jason Francis is the Senior Policy Advisor for the Center.

Jason Francis, Senior Policy Advisor, United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean : “This course basically revolves around reconstructing shooting crime scenes of which there are too many in our region.  We help investigators, whether they are crime scene investigators, police criminal investigators, or forensic firearm officials from the National Forensic Science Service.  We support them to reconstruct this crime scene  and amongst other things, determine  where the shooter may have stood, where the firearms were pointed at to the object, where the shooters may have left, and the impact of the bullets or cartridge cases, but mainly bullets, on the material that they hit, be it a door, a car, or a human being. So, at the end of this training, the officers will have a better, a greater knowledge, a better appreciation for reconstructing a crime scene using what they find on that crime scene,  bullet holes, striation marks, cartridges, and other bits of evidence  to determine, amongst other things,  the direction of fire, what may have caused the impact on the object,  what type of firearm or  ammunition was used,  amongst other things.”

The participants include six persons from the national forensic science service, nine officers from various departments in the police, and one major from the Belize Defence Force.