A MEETING this week among senior police officials decided to better the force’s crime-solving rate with a string of measures, including an intensified prevention campaign and increased use of DNA testing.
The chiefs of the district CID departments said that serious crime incidents had dropped this year, but added that the crime-solving rate needed to be improved.
Of particular concern were cases involving arsons and bomb explosions, but recently-appointed CID chief Andreas Aristidou told the Cyprus Mail that the increased use of DNA testing would help solve these crimes.
The island’s police force started using DNA testing back in 1998, availing of the Genetics Institute’s facilities, which went operational that same year. The first major case cracked using new methods was that involving the 1997 murder of a French tourist by a local taxi driver.
At this week’s meeting, Aristeidou urged all CID sections to work closer together with other police departments in crime solving.
Press reports suggested one of the high-profile cases being investigated using DNA techniques was that involving the disappearance of radiologist Giorgos Kinnis from Limassol. But Aristidou yesterday stressed that DNA testing was being applied universally and not limited to certain cases.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
