The Magic Of Latent Fingerprints

CSI-Ever Watch It???

To all of my subscribers out there, how many of you have seen this show??? Or have seen any other similar crime shows???  Probably the most common visual aspect we take away from these shows is the forensics investigator collecting fingerprints at the crime scene.  While these shows are obviously heavily dramatized, they do bring out one critical aspect which is so true in law enforcement.  And that is the role of the forensics investigator, and the importance of the quality of the fingerprints which are collected.  True, there are more pieces of evidence collected, but fingerprints (and also DNA) are amongst the most critical pieces of evidence which is used in a court of law. 

But sometimes, the quality of the fingerprints at the crime scene can degrade quickly (of course, depending upon the environmental conditions, and if the suspect has tried to wipe away their fingerprints).  Thus collecting what is known as “latent” fingerprints becomes important.  This is the leftover fingerprints which are still available at the crime scene.  I have written a Posting before on this, and ever since then, the technology has gotten better, very quickly.  A Biometrics Vendor known as “Human Recognition Systems” has just announced a new development in the technologies which are available for collecting latent fingerprints. 

The details:  “Human Recognition Systems (HRS) is pleased to announce the latest enhancement, lights out latent, to its recently launched product, MForce. The 'lights out latent' module delivers real time results for police, military and humanitarian organisation in disaster victim identification, crime scene investigation and watch list identification . . . With its combination of fixed and portable components, MForce systems synchronise to share the latest databases and watch lists keeping data up to date across disparate teams. Already delivering multi-modal biometrics combining finger, face, iris, DNA, the addition of latent matching completes the biometric capability meaning users have all their identification processes in one place.”  (SOURCE:  http://www.findbiometrics.com/industry-news/i/9266/). 

My Take

So as you can see from the above quote, this latent technology solution is an add on to an existing Security solution.  The end result is that this provides a comprehensive solution to all types and kinds o law enforcement officials.  The benefits of this are immediate and obvious.  For example:

*The combined solution results in what is known as “livescan” and “latency”.  Meaning, not only fresh fingerprints can be collected, but so can the residual fingerprints which lie around later.  In other words, now with a single unit, at the crime scene and after the crime scene evidence can now be collected;

*This solution can work in the most rugged of environments (especially in times of natural disasters, where trying to identify victims and individuals becomes of prime importance), all data collected can be shared with other law enforcement databases in real time all over the world;

*This solution is easy enough and powerful enough to use that even non trained personnel, to a certain degree I am assuming, can collect and analyze latent fingerprints.  This means that the professional, trained forensics experts can spend their much needed and valuable time at the crime scene, collecting evidence which is fresh, and not tainted.  In other words, “This provides an excellent opportunity to allow forensic experts to continue working where they are most needed in the field without being called away but at the same time, it also empowers other individuals to perform latent matching – and on both accounts, this saves time and money.”  (SOURCE:  http://www.findbiometrics.com/industry-news/i/9266/).

*The latent fingerprint images don’t have to be sent back to the lab for further processing, it can be done all at real time, when these residual fingerprints are found. 

As I write this Posting, an idea came to me:  One of the main constraints of Biometrics is that an entire image of a sample needs to be collected in order to fully ascertain the identity of somebody.  Meaning, these systems cannot take into account broken images, much like a latent fingerprint. 

So, why not take this technology (or at least the theories behind it) and create a solution so that all Biometric Systems can take into account broken images (such as of the hand, face, finger, voice, eye, etc)???  Just a thought on my part for the Biometrics Industry to consider….

Comments

[justin bieber supra]

Those are super cute. I like you on Facebook.

[crime scene clean up]

Elevated ideas and information. Glad you've shared this. It really help. Thanks