In the second decade of the 21st century can anyone tell me why latent Fingerprint Examiners are still using magnifying glasses to conduct fingerprint examinations. The conversion to a digital environment for almost every other professions is decades old but many in the Latent Fingerprint professions hold onto this outdated technology with grim determination when an inexpensive digital alternative exists.
Even in the face of obvious OH&S advantages and efficiencies in the handling of case files, some fingerprint examiners remain wedded to the magnifying glass. To misquote the NRA, the attitude “you can have my magnifying glass when you pry it from my dead cold hands” is not valid reason to hold on to a technology that has well and truly had its day.
That sounds harsh but like an ex-smoker I have the zeal of a convert when it comes to the evil magnifying glass. Having suffered from eye strain and neck pains after bending over a desk I now know how much of a difference correct posture while sitting at desk can make to your life. I still suffer from damaged eye sight which has not quite recovered from the abuse that I subjected to myself over two decades using my good eye to conduct magnifying glass comparisons. The eye that was my good eye is now my much weaker eye but the neck pain had fully recovered by the time I retired from fingerprint case work.
If any Latent examiners out there can identify with this give me a thumbs up.