South African Police Service Act, 1995 (Act No. 68 of 1995)RegulationsForensic DNA Regulations, 20156. Communication of forensic DNA findings and related information |
| (1) | A police official, member of IPID or official of the court must in writing request that an examination be conducted and findings be made on exhibit material submitted to the Forensic Science Laboratory. A request for examination must accompany all exhibits submitted to the Forensic Science Laboratory. |
| (2) | If the court date is known at the time of submitting the exhibits, the court date must be clearly indicated in the covering letter that accompanies the exhibit material. |
| (3) | The particulars of the person and the court date must be updated on the CAS/ICDMS and CRIM systems respectively. The investigating officer must inform the section responsible for forensic database management in the Division: Forensic Services, as soon as possible, but within 7 days after becoming aware of the findings of the court. |
| (4) | A forensic analyst attached to the Forensic Science Laboratory must ensure that forensic DNA profiles are derived from a crime sample, bodily sample and buccal sample within 30 days from the receipt thereof at the Forensic Science Laboratory. The forensic analyst must inform the relevant investigating officer of the result of the analysis. The report of the result must be filed by the investigating officer in the police docket. |
| (5) | The forensic analyst must report to the investigating officer the outcome of the examination and the results of the tests for purposes of section 212(6)(a) and (b) of the Criminal Procedure Act if— |
| (a) | the person under investigation or the DNA of a suspect matches the DNA found in the crime scene sample; |
| (b) | an identification of human remains has been made; |
| (c) | preliminary tests on the exhibit material in the case are negative or no DNA could be found in the crime scene sample relevant to the case; |
| (d) | a person under investigation or a suspect may be excluded by the DNA found in the crime scene sample; and |
| (e) | DNA was found in crime scene samples in the case, but no match could be made as no buccal sample was received by the Forensic Science Laboratory for comparison. |
| (6) | The investigating officer must, in addition to the report, communicated through a system notification by means of the FSL admin system to the docket diary of the CAS/ICDMS system, be informed if— |
| (a) | the preliminary tests were negative; |
| (b) | the forensic DNA of a suspect is excluded from the DNA found in the exhibits; |
| (c) | the forensic DNA of a suspect matches the DNA in the exhibits examined; |
| (d) | no forensic DNA finding could be made; |
| (e) | human remains or a missing person is identified; and |
| (f) | different cases are linked to each other or a suspect is linked to different case(s). |
| (7) | The Forensic Science Laboratory may implement a process related system with different teams to process DNA crime samples, bodily samples and DNA reference samples. The DNA process teams may, inter alia, include persons responsible for— |
| (a) | case reception and registration of forensic casework; |
| (b) | evidence recovery; |
| (c) | submission of DNA crime samples, bodily samples and buccal samples to the DNA analysis process laboratory; |
| (d) | DNA analysis process laboratory; |
| (e) | monitoring the status of the DNA analysis process; and |
| (f) | analysed forensic DNA profiles and associated data derived from the samples and compile a DNA report. |
| (8) | The findings of the case must be reported by the forensic examiner as contemplated by subregulations (6) and (7). |
| (9) | Forensic investigative leads must be communicated to the investigator responsible for investigating a particular case. The system solution for the NFDD must communicate the forensic investigative leads to the docket diary of the CAS/ICDMS system. |
| (10) | The investigating officer must investigate, follow-up forensic investigative leads and record progress in the docket diary of the CAS/ICDMS system of each case linked. The investigating officer must report progress to the section head at the Division: Forensic Services responsible for the NFDD. |