Challenges facing Palestinian crime scene investigators

Egyptian Journal of Forensic Sciences

Table 1 Number of Palestinian police employees at the crime scene for each of the northern governorates (West Bank)

District within the West Bank	Governorate	Total population^a	Total no. of criminal offense^b	No. of CRU officers	No. of CIU officers	No. of first officers	Total (N)^c	% of N
North	Jenin	352875	6735	40	14	47	101	37.3
	Nablus	431584	3154	43	14	63	120
	Tubas	68779	904	15	10	16	41
	Tulkarm	205946	2401	29	11	39	79
Middle	Jericho	55268	1761	16	11	31	58	42.0
	Jerusalem	492340	1370	21	10	16	47
	Qalqilia	127025	2084	17	10	29	56
	Ramallah	370030	5053	48	15	123	186
	Salfit	85920	1849	12	9	16	37
South	Bethlehem	244704	2991	18	13	48	79	20.7
South	Hebron	822435	6089	31	12	67	110	20.7
Total		3256906	34391	290	129	495	914	100
% of total CSI Officers				31.7	14.1	54.2	100	100

^a(PCBS 2023). ^bTypes of criminal offense: murder, kidnapping, rape, assault, harming, narcotic drugs, theft/robbery, forgery/fraud, prejudice the course of justice, assault government employees, possessing/trading with expired food or medicine, arson, shooting, suspected crimes, crimes against public order, corruption, and threat (PCBS 2022b). ^cN = first officers + CIU + CRU