From 5-13 November 2019, the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC) delivered the final session in its 11-month firearm examiner training series for Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) technicians.
The training succeeded at increasing the capacity of firearms technicians to become competent reporting officers, capable of signing off on forensic reports related to the comparative analysis of bullets and cartridge cases. Â Likewise, the increased skill set of the RBPF technicians will improve the ability of the forensic laboratory to effectively examine ballistic evidence and report on firearms-related crime.
The training programme covered several modules essential to the ballistics discipline including, inter alia, history of firearm and toolmark identification, tool manufacture, firearm and ammunition manufacture and functioning, comparative pattern analysis theory, examination and comparison of bullets and fired cartridge cases and mock testimony.
This training programme forms part of UNLIREC’s ‘Combating Illicit Firearms and Ammunition Trafficking in the Caribbean through Operational Forensic Ballistics’ (OFB) project and was made possible thanks to the financial support of the Government of the United States of America.