The Capacity of the Available Forensic Equipment’s to Produce Evidence of Real Suspects:

Abstract

Forensic investigation in the past has largely been concentrated on serious crime like rape and murder. Forensic science is normally seen to act as a "Watch Dog" on community’s behalf against all abuse and risks that may threaten it. The forensic science service laboratory is among of the essential aspect needed by the community. All over the world, the forensic science laboratories is given priority to make sure that physical evidence are processed in researching for the truth. This study examined the capacity of the available forensic equipment’s to produce evidence of real suspects in Ilala District. The research adopted a survey research design as well as mixed research approach. The sample size of the study was 76 respondents who were selected using the stratified random sampling technique. Structured questionnaires and interviews were used for data collection. Data were analyzed by Descriptive statistics and content analysis. Findings indicated that the available forensic equipment had a capacity to produce evidence of real suspects since the tools have high speed, have large memory, has an ability to examine large and integrated with various software for data sharing. The study recommends that the forensic science laboratories should be well maintained and instruments be updated to fit the current technology so that they maintain capacity to produce evidence of real suspects. Finally the study recommends that the forensic science laboratories should be frequently used to examine evidences for cases that require fingerprint or DNA examination. This in turn will reduce biases in evidence and will facilitate easy and quick crime investigation decisions.