Woman Senior Inspector (WSIP) Angel Lau from Crime Tai Po District and Senior Inspector (SIP) Joe Wong from Crime Mong Kok District attended a two-week Crime Scene Investigations Course run by the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) in Bangkok, Thailand, in October.

It is the first time the Force has sent officers to attend this specialised course, which aims to enhance the capabilities of law enforcement officers to carry out investigations at the scenes of serious crimes.

ILEA provides specialised training

The ILEA was established by the US and Thailand in 1999 to provide specialised training to boost law enforcement officers' investigation abilities and to foster co-operation among Southeast Asian countries in fighting transnational crimes. Since ILEA's establishment, over 5,000 law enforcement personnel have attended various courses on narcotics, terrorism, cyber crime, financial crime and other transnational crimes.

Besides the two detectives from Hong Kong, 35 other supervisory investigators, forensic personnel and criminal justice officials from 10 other countries and region have also attended the training course, including Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Vietnam and Macao.

Delivered by four Special Agents from Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the course covered the issues commonly encountered at the scenes of serious crimes, with course trainees learning FBI's crime scene investigations through lectures, demonstrations and practical exercises. The topics covered ranged from FBI's "Crime Scene Administration & Management", "Recovery of Forensic Evidence", "Bloodstain Pattern Analysis", "Bullet Trajectory Reconstruction" to "Post Blast Investigations".

The focuses of the course were recognition, location, preservation and collection of forensic evidence. The FBI Special Agents taught the techniques and equipment used by FBI in collecting forensic evidence, including fuming techniques to find latent fingerprints; use of magnetic powder to locate fingerprints on human body; and application of alternative light source to detect latent print or body fluid evidence.

As impression evidence, such as shoeprints and tool marks, is also commonly found at a crime scene, the trainees were given an introduction to FBI's casting kits for lifting such prints and marks.

Upon returning from her overseas training course, WSIP Lau told OffBeat that she had high regard for the course. "I've greatly benefitted from the course. I will apply my newly gained knowledge in my job," she noted.

Introduction impressive

SIP Wong said FBI's comprehensive crime scene administration was impressive and had given him an insight into the ways of investigation, which would be useful to his job.

Both officers said they now understand better the investigation capabilities of not only FBI but also Southeast Asian countries. The added benefits for them are friendship and networking with their overseas counterparts, as well as international co-operation in fighting transnational crimes.

Woman Senior Inspector Angel Lau getting tips on lifting prints on human body