Forensic investigators fear worst in security cutbacks

The specialists at the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) fears that crime scene investigation and the solving of complex crimes will be compromised because of budget cuts by Minister Ivo Opstelten of Security and Justice. This is according to De Telegraaf, based on a letter the NFI staff sent to their director. The NFI is handling all of the DNA work connected to identifying the victims of the disaster with flight MH17. If the cutbacks plan goes through, tasks such as DNA research and crime scene investigation will have to be done by the National Police. The NFI staff thinks that the police officers are not ready for that. "The board expresses its concern about the continuity of the named activities", the NFI staff writes. If it becomes the responsibility of the police and experts in this area lose their jobs at the NFI, it wil have an "adverse impact on the quality of the detection or prosecution investigation", according to the board. According to De Telegraaf, the cutbacks will cause 77 redundancies at the NFI.