Latest update April 23rd, 2024 12:59 AM
May 08, 2013 News
Even as the Guyana Police Force moves to further embrace forensic technology, a major internal conflict is brewing, following the removal of the head of the Force’s forensic laboratory.
This newspaper was reliably informed that Superintendent Stephen Greaves, who has been in the Force’s forensic department for the past 25 years, was relieved of his post as head of the section and transferred to the Brickdam Police Station, where he will serve as a uniform rank doing general duties.
No official reason was given for the move, but a reliable source high up in the Guyana Police Force informed that Greaves’ transfer has to do with a falling out he had with the Force’s CID top brass over a highly contentious issue that came up during the Linden Commission of Inquiry.
According to the source, Greaves, who is the longest serving Superintendent of Police, had been requested to prepare a “specific” report on ballistics tests carried out on weapons used during the Linden riots that led to the deaths of three persons. He refused to carry out the request, claiming that it was against his professional ethics.
Superintendent Greaves joined the Guyana Police Force as a specialist officer from the Government Analyst Department. Being a direct civilian intake of the force’s officer corps, he has had his ups and down with the established top brass.
About two years ago, Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee had cause to intervene and influenced the reinstatement of Superintendent Greaves when he was previously removed from the police laboratory.
“Right now letters are flying left, right and centre within the Force over the move to transfer Greaves,” a senior police officer told Kaieteur News.
He pointed out that at a time when more emphasis is being placed on forensic science to solve crimes, the move to transfer the most experienced officer is counter-productive.
The government will soon be commissioning a state-of-the-art forensic laboratory at the University of Guyana’s Turkeyen Campus, and there will definitely be a great need for experienced personnel to man the facility.
In the absence of Greaves, the force’s forensic laboratory is being run by Superintendent Phillip Azore, who has a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry from the University of Guyana.
Many are of the view that the writing was on the wall for Greaves when he was involved in a matter that caused great embarrassment to the Guyana Police Force.
A little over a year ago, the force came under fire for its handling of the Sheema Mangar investigations, of which Greaves was an integral part.
Mangar was dragged to her death under a car when she tried to retrieve her cellular phone which was snatched by a man who fled in the said vehicle.
The police had collected samples of cloth and what appeared to be blood from a car they had pulled in during the course of their investigations, and were to send them for testing in Barbados.
The samples never left Guyana and Greaves bore the brunt of the subsequent criticisms leveled against the force for the apparent indifference to the matter.
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