The ACE + V methodology requires the Fingerprint Examiners to take notes of the fingerprint examination.
“Documenation shall be made at the or near the time of the examination and may e in the form of annotated images, narrative, worksheets, annotated legible copies, sketches, [etc.]”.(SWGFAST, Friction Ridge Examination Methodology for Latent Print Examiners -Aug 22 2002, v1.01)
The why is not questioned here but what about the how. As the prior manager of a mid-sized Fingerprint Bureaux in Australia this how was something that we tried to address with our software. It was obvious that examiners would require more time to complete these notes but there was never any suggestion that we would have more staff or a reduction in our case load.
I made a quick comparison between the traditional method and the ACE + V (with notes) and timed the difference and it turns out that it takes about four times longer to conduct a ACE + V comparison (1 minute vs 4 minutes). This is highly subjective and unscientific I know but I think that most fingerprint examiners would admit that if we are serious about the ACE+V method that more time will in fact be taken for each comparison.
Fortunately, other technologies came along at the right time to offset the comparison time to compensate for this. The digital conversion of our crime scene prints and the ability to download digital images from our AFIS made the management of case file much more steam lined and efficient. The use of specialised comparison software also made the handling, enhancement, and charting of images was easier and faster (Forensic Comparison Software).
I would like to hear for anyone who has thoughts about ways of making ACE+V work without impacting too much on case file throughput. I am in the business of making the lives of fingerprint examiners easier and if we can incorporate some of these ideas into our software then we are keen to do so.
I have included some videos explaining the differences in the methods. These are my interpretations and others may have a different approach. The software is flexible however and can be used in a way to suit the individual examiner.
Traditional method - some commentary that slows things down here but much shorter time to conduct than the ACE+V method.
Watch embedded video 1 on YouTube
ACE + V method - a lot of commentary here slowing down the process and is much faster when not included. The additional charting is not required but just an additional tool open to the examiner and can add to the explanation of the comparison notes.
