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12/31/03
 During
an annual conference held several years ago by the International
Association for Identification, the FBI set up latent print
workstations and invited other law enforcement agencies to
bring their latent prints for a demonstration of some new
technology. Police from Georgia brought along a latent print
from the scene of a sexual assault. It was run through the
Bureau's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System
(IAFIS) and soon a match was made: the print belonged to an
individual with a lengthy criminal record who was currently
locked up in a Georgia jail for stealing a car.
What's
a "latent" print? It's an impression -- usually
invisible to the naked eye -- left on crime scene evidence
that is produced by the ridged skin on human fingers, palms,
and soles of the feet. A variety of techniques, including
using chemicals, powders, lasers, and alternate light sources,
are employed in the detection and development of latent prints.
These prints are then routinely processed through local and
state fingerprint databases to find a match. But if those
searches come up empty-handed, the prints can also be submitted
to IAFIS.
Are
latent searches effective? Using the IAFIS fingerprint
search capability against data from the FBI's Criminal Justice
Information Services Division -- which maintains the largest
repository of fingerprint records -- identifications can be
made in cases for which no known suspects were named, and
in cases in which latent prints didn't match the suspects
named in the investigation. From 1997 through July of this
year, the FBI Laboratory's latent prints experts -- while
using IAFIS -- have identified 1,040 latent fingerprints of
863 persons in 601 criminal investigations. Among those identified:
*
The person responsible for breaking into the house of an elderly
widow while she was in the hospital and stealing a number
of keepsakes. Police were able to lift several fingerprints
from the house and then sent them through IAFIS. The system
returned with a match: it was the woman's neighbor who had
volunteered to watch the house while she was away. The suspect's
rap sheet revealed that he had been arrested several times
in other jurisdictions for burglary.
Are
latent searches easy to conduct? Yes! Since 1999, state
and federal agencies have even been able to conduct remote
latent searches of IAFIS by using the CJIS network. Local
law enforcement agencies have also been encouraged to use
the service, with the concurrence of the appropriate state
official -- the Bureau offers free remote latent software
to agencies interested in processing latent prints directly
through IAFIS. Police agencies are also encouraged to dig
through their "cold case" files and submit latent
fingerprints from significant unsolved cases to IAFIS. Here's
an example of one such case:
* The
Houston Police Department recently submitted latent prints
from a 1969 case involving the murder of a young mother --
no one was ever arrested. The IAFIS search identified the
prints as belonging to a 58-year-old ex-con who had never
been a suspect in the case. Confronted by the print evidence,
he ultimately confessed to the murder.
As more
and more investigators begin processing their latent prints
through IAFIS, there will no doubt be a comparable increase
in the number of dangerous criminals being put behind bars.
Related
links: FBI's
Latent Print Units | IAFIS
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