Pretoria - The SA Police Service (Saps) Forensic Science Laboratories (FSL) have made a significant dent in their backlog, which in turn has seen the early prosecution and conviction of criminals.
Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa revealed on Tuesday that cases decreased by 19.25 percent between 1 April 2009 and 31 March 2010.
The backlog in ballistics decreased by 39 percent, biology investigation 33 percent and 21 percent in questioned documents.
Mthethwa attributed this success to the turnaround strategy that was implemented in forensics.
International experts have been assisting police in identifying the causes of the backlogs and have developed remedial steps to resolve them.
"We are pleased with this progress, while also mindful that the current functioning of the FSL is far from ideal. We shall continue to strive to ensure that we transform the FSL into a world-class unit," Mthethwa said.
The laboratories play a critical role in the prosecution and conviction of criminals. However, most of them were not functioning optimally. Court cases, depending on forensic evidence, could be delayed, lost or dropped.
Since February this year, an overhaul of human resources, skills, upgrading of equipment was undertaken to improve capacity.
