Fingerprinting Analysis And Databases
What is 'fingerprint analysis'?
Present on the surface of our fingers, as well as other surfaces on our body, are ridges. These are what we call "friction ridges". They provide us with the ability to grip hold of objects without them sliding away from us. These "friction ridges" also have another purpose for us in forensics - they give rise to fingerprints. If we were to touch some ink and then place our finger against an object, you will see an impression of our "friction skin ridges" being deposited on that object.
How long has fingerprinting been used in CSI?
I guess when you look at the history of fingerprinting you can go back 3000 years where the Chinese have been. We're known to have used the fingerprints to seal or record a seal for documents. But in actuality the history of fingerprints begins around 1880 with an individual by the name, an English individual by the name of Henry Fauld who published his treaty on fingerprinting and identified it as a means for characterizing or identifying a human being. A couple of years later another Englishman by the name of Francis Gaulton published a very well-known textbook known as Fingerprints, where he discussed the various fingerprint patterns that were useful for identifying humans through fingerprinting.
How has fingerprinting helped in CSI?
There are thousands of examples that I can give you as to how a fingerprint helped identify a criminal. Let me give you just two. There is Lee Harvey Oswald, who left his fingerprint on a weapon that was fired from the Texas Depository School Building. There is also James Earl Ray, who left his fingerprint on the weapon that was used to kill Martin Luther King. There are literally hundreds of thousands of other examples that I can give you. Fingerprinting is the most important and potent investigative tool that criminal investigators have.
How does the FBI classify fingerprints for CSI?
And these rich characteristics today, are searched by computers. It will be a computer that will scan a fingerprint and will identify the rich pattern present in the fingerprint and the general location. And they will then be identified and then entered into a computerized system, to be searched against a large number of candidates.
How does IAFIS work to identify fingerprints?
The Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) is a computerized system that ties together all of the police agencies in the United States. There are fifty million individuals that have their fingerprints within the IAFIS system. When a fingerprint search is made against the IAFIS, the investigator will put into the computer the different ridge characteristics and their locations. And, this would then be searched in a high speed search against the fifty million individuals present in the system and the number of candidates would then be identified. What is important, however, is that the computer will not make the ultimate decision. It will be a competent fingerprint examiner that will look at the various candidates that the computer generates and creates, and ultimately it is the human fingerprint examiner that makes the ultimate final comparison and identification.
