| Author | Message | ||
     Kasey Wertheim |
John, The situations you refer to implicate that you are inquiring about the fabrication of latent print evidence by law enforcement personnel in order to "frame" an innocent suspect. Your example of lifting or reproducing an area of ridges from known prints and labeling that as an unknown print would most likely be quite obvious to anyone else examining the lift or photograph. There are tell-tale signs of forgery and fabrication that a competent fingerprint examiner would recognize, even if not trained in this specific subject. For example, pistol magazines have a brushed metal texture which appears as background "noise" on the lift itself. The background noise from the paper fibers of a fingerprint card would appear quite different. Any examiner or technician looking at a lift with paper fibers in the background would balk at a description on the lift that denoted a metal surface. I would respond to this issue by saying that although these types of incidents have been found and reported, they are generally quite unlikely and rare. Of course, one easy way to determine whether this has been done in a particular case is to compare the questioned lift to known lifts off the item from which it was said to have come. And usually, items of evidence that have been well preserved show the exact area from which the lift occurred. The lift can be positioned back exactly based on powder and lift marks that remain on the surface. (sort of like an end match) | ||
| john |
once booked and finger printed. can these prints be reproduced to implicate someone of a crime? like to be able to lift them with tape then say that these prints were lifted from say a pistol magazine. how can the examiner verify that the prints were indeed lifted from the magazine and not from another source? can prints be lifted twice from the same object. thanks, john. | ||
| Kasey Wertheim |
John, It is fairly common (at least in my experience) to see latent prints that have been "etched" into the metal of pistol magazines over time. These prints do not normally develop and lift, and are usually photographed by the latent print examiner or laboratory technician. These types of prints could last indefinitely, subject to environmental conditions. If a latent print is developed and lifted, it will remain on the adhesive portion of the tape in contact with the lift card indefinitely, subject to storage conditions. -Kasey | ||
| john |
how long will a finger print last on; say a pistol magazine before it is dusted and how long will a print last on the tape once it is lifted. thanks, john | ||
| bert |
Charlotte, on small calibers,and handgun ammunition in general, there is only a small chance to get DNA as well as latent prints from spent cartridges. Our DNA-lab preferes DNA fuming. If the latent isn't usefull, they got at least an indication where there was a contactzone skin/cartridges. If the lantent is usefull, you can try enhancement the useall way. If the cartridge is made of brass, you also can try etching with gun-blue or the like after the normal procedure. After that, DNA isn't possible anymore and ballistics may be a problem. Good luck. Bert VAN DIJCK Federal Police GDA-Antwerpen ANTWERP - Belgium | ||
| Duncan Brown |
There is an article in Fingerprint Whorld Vol 20 No. 75 Jan 1994 which you may find useful. | ||
| charlotte hammontree |
we are researching the best procedures for obtaining latent prints from live and spent cartridges from shotguns and the best ways of obtaining DNA from cartridges. |
