By the Caribbean Journal staff

Saint Lucian criminals may no longer be able to hide in cyberspace, if a new initiative by the government has its way.

The “Identification and Seizure of Digital Evidence Training Programme,” which began yesterday for members of the Saint Lucia Police Force, is part of the anti-terrorism assistance programme initiative for cyberforensics in the Caribbean. It is part of an assistance drive from the US Embassy in Barbados.

“The skill sets that are going to be developed here will enable [officers] to look for digital devices that contain evidential value which they will know how to identify,” said Neil Hinds, security investigator for the Regional Security Office for the US Embassy. “They will known how to seize, package and send the evidence collected to the lab for analysis.”

According to Acting Police Commissioner Vernon Francois, the Royal Saint Lucia Police Force has been engaged in training recently dealing with the collection of physical evidence such as DNA.

“The training will assist our officers obviously to be more efficient as it relates to their ability to deal with cases of that nature,” Francois said. “We are in a situation presently where we cannot depend on eyewitness evidence.”