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for almost every other professions is decades old but many in the Latent Fingerprint professions hold onto this outdated technology with grim determination when an inexpensive digital alternative exists.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.
Getting the scale right when the fingerprint tech starts a comparison can save a lot of time and effort. In many cases the experienced operator can judge when the scales look right between the Unknown latent impression and the known set of record prints. Sometimes though you just want to know for sure that you are comparing like to like and the new version of the Forensic Comparison Software does that with ease.
Just scale the latent impression and select “match zoom” and the software automatically reads the resolution of the scanned set of 10 prints or NIST file from the National or State AFIS and both images are rescaled or zoomed to match the scale/zoom of the latent impression.
For further information contact me at john@forensic-software.com
In this article I make my case that Forensic Comparison Software will cover 99% of the image enhancement needs of the Fingerprint Technician. There will always be that rare very difficult print that requires Photoshop. The problem I have always had is that practically all enhancement work can be done with the easier to use and less expensive Forensic Comparison Software.
In addition there is no need for expensive training courses and time away from case work to attend those courses. In my experience I used someone from the digital imaging department with expertise Photoshop for those rare occasions when it was needed. For smaller agencies, a staff member with an interest in Photoshop could have this capability.
For day to day operations FCS is a much easier and less expensive alternative.
Go to http://forensic-software.com/ for further information or contact me and I will send you information directly.
