Fingerprint Whorld

FINGERPRINT WHORLD

The Fingerprint Society Online http://www.fpsociety.org.uk/ THE FINGERPRINT SOCIETY

QUAERITE ET INVENIETIS FOUNDED 1974

Patron: Vacant President: S. Haylock, F.F.S. (City of London) Regional Vice Presidents: F. Rogers, F.F.S. (Arizona, USA) B. Dalrymple, F.F.S. (Ontario Provincial Police, Canada) G. Farncomb, F.F.S. (Australian Federal Police) R. Plummer, F.F.S. (Southern Australia) Chairman: V. Galloway, F.F.S. (Leicestershire) Secretary: K. Smith, F.F.S. (Warwickshire) Treasurer: M. Callaghan, F.F.S. (West Yorkshire) Membership Secretary: P. Smith, F.F.S. (Warwickshire) Subscriptions Secretary: C. McGowan, F.F.S. (Lancashire) Editor of Fingerprint Whorld: D. Charlton, F.F.S. (Sussex) Advertising Manager: S. Mewett, F.F.S. (Sussex)

Committee Members: N. Aspel, F.F.S. (TVP) S. Haylock, F.F.S. (Cambs) C. Patton, F.F.S. (PITO) R. Broadstock, F.F.S. (Retired) K. Kershaw, F.F.S. (GMP) J. Roberts, F.F.S. (Sussex) M. Callaghan, F.F.S. (West Yorks) M. Leadbetter, F.F.S. (Cambs) K. Smith, F.F.S. (Warks) M. Chamberlain, F.F.S. (Humbs) R. Mackenzie, F.F.S. (SCRO) P. Smith, F.F.S. (Warks) D. Charlton, F.F.S. (Sussex) C. McGowan F.F.S. (Lancs) K. Stow, M.F.S. (Derby) G. Dempster, M.F.S. (Grampian) S. Mewett, F.F.S. (Sussex) M. Valentine, F.F.S. (GMP) D. Fairhurst, F.F.S. (Surrey) G. Morgan, F.F.S. (Cheshire) I. Williams, F.F.S. (Cambs) V. Galloway, F.F.S. (Leicester)

Honorary Members (MON, M.F.S.) Ex-Commander G. Lambourne, Q.P.M., S.G. Durrett F.F.S. Mr. F. Warboys, O.B.E., B.A., F.F.S., Mr. T. Kent, Sheila Hardwick, P.S.D.B., Sandridge, Ken Creer, M.B.E., F.B.I.P.P., F.R.P.S.

Life Members: J.E. Berry, F.F.S., M.J. Leadbetter, F.F.S., B.A. Hons., N. Hall, M.F.S.

Consultants: F.R. Bayford, M.F.S., F.R.S.H., Pharmacist, Dr. Roger Davis, Forensic Scientist, Dr. N.R. Totty, Principal Scientific Officer, Handwriting Examiner, Prof. J. Verbov, J.P., M.D., F.R.C.P., FRCPCH, FIBiol, FLS.

United Kingdom Legal Advisor: Vacant

United States Legal Advisor: David C. Mount, U.S. Secret Service

Executive Sub-Committee: President, Chairman, Secretary, Membership Secretary, Treasurer, Editor.

The Lewis Minshall Award Collator: R. Mackenzie, F.F.S. (S.C.R.O.)

page 202 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 CONTENTS

FINGERPRINT WHORLD OCTOBER 2005 Vol. 31 No. 122

EDITORIAL Evolution or Revolution? 205 Dave Charlton, Ug Dip, FFS, RFP, Editor

RESEARCH Traumatic Stress – and the Crime Scene Examiner 206 by Simon Chapman, BA (Hons), MA, RFP

FEATURES Fingerprint Society Lectures 2005, Brighton 213

Fire Investigation Courses to Aid Battle 223 Against Arsonists

FERRT Student of the Year 2004 224

SCIENCE The Use of Infra-red Filters to Remove 225 Background Patterns in Fingerprint Imaging by S.M. Bleay and T. Kent

Proflavin-Based Fingerprint Dusting Composition 239 by G.S. Sodhi and Jasjeet Kaur

CONFERENCE 31st Annual Educational Conference 240 17-19 March 2006, Scottish Police College, Tulliallan Castle, Scotland

CONFERENCE National Symposium on Emerging Areas 242 REPORT of Forensic Science by G.S. Sodhi, Gurmeet Kaur, Gurvinder Kaur and P.S. Jassal

NEWS 246

WEBLINKS 255

WEB SITE NEWS An Urgent Update! 257

society A Brief History of the Fingerprint Society 258 business The Rules of the Fingerprint Society 260 Codes of Conduct 266 Guidelines for Authors 268

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 203 THE AIMS OF THE SOCIETY THE To advance the study and application of fingerprints and to facilitate the FINGERPRINT co-operation among persons interested in this field of personal identification. SOCIETY QUAERITE ET INVENIETIS FOUNDED 1974

FOUNDER MEMBERS: D.R. Brooker, Consultants N.J. Hall, S.E. Haylock, M.J. Leadbetter. F.R. Byford, MFS, FRSH, Dr. R. Davis, Dr. R.N. Totty, Prof. J. Verbov, MD, FRCP, Patron: Vacant at this time FRCPCH, FIBiol

PRESIDENT: STEPHEN E. HAYLOCK, FFS Legal Advisor City of London Police, Fingerprint Bureau, D.C. Mount (USA) 37 Wood Street, London EC2P 2NQ. Tel: 0207 601 2333 Life Members Regional Vice-Presidents: J.E. Berry, BEM, FFS, M.J. Leadbetter, BA (Hons), F. Rogers, FFS (USA), B. Dalrymple (Canada) FFS, N. Hall, MFS G. Farncomb, FFS (Australian Federal Police) R. Plummer, FFS (Southern Australia) Committee Members R. Mackenzie (Strathclyde), M. Valentine (GMP), CHAIRPERSON: VIVIENNE GALLOWAY, FFS V. Galloway (Leicester), S. Haylock (COLP), Leicester Constabulary, Fingerprint Bureau, R. Broadstock (Retired), G. Morgan (Cheshire), St. John’s Enderby, Leicester LE5 9BX. C. McGowan (Lancashire), D. Charlton (Sussex), Tel: 0116 248 2580 G. Dempster (Grampian), C. Patton (PITO), K. Luff (Retired), D. Fairhurst, FFS (Surrey), SECRETARY: M. Leadbetter FFS (Camb.) KATHRYN SMITH, FFS Warwickshire Police Fingerprint Bureau Scientific Official Publication: Support Unit, High St, Southam, Warwickshire CV47 0HB. FINGERPRINT WHORLD email: [email protected] Published quarterly: January, April, July, October. MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY: PAUL SMITH, FFS EDITOR: DAVID CHARLTON, FFS Warwickshire Police Fingerprint Bureau Scientific Sussex Fingerprint Bureau, Sussex House, Support Unit, High St, Southam, Crowhurst Road, Brighton BN1 8AF. Warwickshire CV47 0HB. email: [email protected] Tel: 01273 859013 Fax: 01273 859013 email: [email protected] WEB MASTER: GARY MORGAN, FFS Cheshire Constabulary, Forensic Investigation Unit, ADVERTISING MANAGER: Police HQ, Clemonds Hey, Oakmere Road, STEVE MEWETT, FFS Winsford CW7 2UA. Sussex Fingerprint Bureau, Sussex House, Tel: 01244 612414 Crowhurst Road, Brighton BN1 8AF. email: [email protected] Tel: 01273 859006 Fax: 01273 859605 email: [email protected] SUBSCRIPTION SECRETARY: CHERYL McGOWAN SUPPLIES OFFICER: JOHN ROBERTS, FFS Lancashire Fingerprint Bureau, Sussex Fingerprint Bureau, Sussex House, PO Box 77, Hutton, Preston PR4 5SB. Crowhurst Road, Brighton BN1 8AF. Tel: 01273 859006 Fax: 01273 859605 TREASURER: MONICA CALLAGHAN, FFS email: [email protected] West Yorkshire Police, Fingerprint Bureau, Bishopgarth, Westfield Road, Wakefield WF1 3QP. ARCHIVIST: MERVYN VALENTINE, FFS Tel: 01924 208207 Fax: 01924 292918 Greater Manchester Police, Scientific Support Services, Fingerprint Bureau, Bradford Park, Hon. Members and Advisors 3 Bank St., Clayton, Manchester M11 4AA. G. Lambourne, QPM, FFS (UK), M. Carrick (USA), S.G. Durrett, FFS (USA), F. Warboys, OBE, BA, PRESS LIAISON OFFICER: KEN LUFF FFS, T. Kent (UK), S. Hardwick (UK), K. Creer, London based MBE, FBIPP, FRPS, Mr. T. Kent. email: [email protected]

page 204 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 EDITORIAL

Dave Charlton, Ug Dip, FFS, RFP Editor

Evolution or Revolution?

If you believe in evolution you can trace all of our lower back problems to the time when the first hominid stood erect. Hugo A. Keim

Recently, I was accused of being a forensic ‘revolutionary’. It was not intended as a compliment. I am supposedly someone who has scant regard for the tradition of fingerprint science, and who is prepared to throw it all away at a whim. I have some very strong views about both the current status of Force Fingerprint Bureau, as well as firm beliefs and ideas about how the fingerprint science should progress in the coming months and years. These opinions do not always fit snugly within the normal mould of a fingerprint expert, who toils away in the background working meticulously to find identifications for our Police partners. Never making too many waves. Is it correct to assume that only a slow evolution of procedures and ideas will be beneficial to the fingerprint science, or is a ‘Big Bang’ philosophy appropriate when assessing new thinking and new concepts? The trouble with an evolution of ideas, at least in the context of fingerprint science, is that it assumes that what has gone before was right in the first place, that the ‘natural selection’ of best practice has followed the right evolutionary branch on the forensic scientific tree. In Australia and Madagascar there are all sorts of strange life forms and organisms that are unique to their own island environment. Both lands are cut off from the main global evolutionary pathway. Geological fortune has dictated that this is so. As it probably is with ‘island’ fingerprint bureau around the world, each assuming it is conducting correct scientific practice, each answering the needs of ISO audits based on what the bureau has always done in the past, rather than what is necessarily correct. Yet better practices (organisms) may exist in other ‘islands’. ‘Island organisms’ better equipped to survive in the modern world. In recent years our profession has suffered from a collective ‘bad back’. Our pseudo traditions and assumptions of best practice cripple us. Police and the public want us to be able to run faster, but we cannot, the pain is too great. Instead of addressing the root cause of the ‘bad back’, we look at ways of helping us walk and function with a stick to enable us cope with the disability. Never functioning at 100% efficiency. Maybe we should be looking at whether we can find ways of getting rid of the disability altogether! Yes, I believe in forensic revolution if it is necessary. In the case of our profession I think it just might be. Let’s not hobble around with a bad back. ACPO and PSU act as pretty good chiropractors if we are prepared to let them assess the ‘skeleton’ of our profession and allow them to suggest new ways of performing tasks to get rid of the ‘back pain’. Without debilitation we can move on and thrive. ‘Natural selection’ will cause us to become extinct soon if we do not mutate soon into a new species, one that can survive the new Policing terrain of the 21st century. Stick to evolution if you want to, after all, at least you will know where your bad back originates from. Or we can revolutionise our profession and quickly mutate into something beautiful. You decide. Enjoy the journal.

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 205 RESEARCH

Traumatic Stress – and the Crime Scene Examiner by Simon Chapman, BA (Hons) MA, RFP Scenes of Crime Officer, Leicestershire Constabulary, Beaumont Leys Police Station, Beaumont Way, Leicester LE4 1DS

This paper is a summary of research undertaken by the author in the Winter of 2004. Due to limited space in the current publication the report has not been published in full. The author has also researched the causes and symptoms of traumatic stress in Scenes of Crimes work. To obtain a full version of this report please e-mail the author at: [email protected]

INTRODUCTION When the general public watches the evening news or reads the daily papers, they are bombarded by stories of horrific violence. Stories of killings, rapes and violent assaults dominate the headlines. Many eyewitnesses of such events are affected for days, weeks and even years after the event, yet Scenes of Crimes Officers (SOCO’s), have to deal with such events as a matter of routine. Most professional investigators undertake this task without question and will rarely even admit to being disturbing, frightening or too close to home. Psychologists have been telling us for years that certain symptoms of a traumatic episode are ‘normal’ and to an extent ‘necessary’ for recovery (Mitchell & Everly 1997, 64), we should not, therefore, be surprised at the presence of traumatic stress in this line of work, yet it appears that little has historically been done to address the issue from the SOCO perspective. The fact that SOCO work is regarded as ‘traumatic’ is reflected in several guidelines published by the Home Office. The first, ‘A General Risk Assessment – Scenes of Crimes Officers’ (2000) acknowledges that the role of the SOCO is likely to expose the officer to traumatic events and stressors likely to cause a traumatic stress reaction, and potentially full blown ‘post-traumatic stress disorder’. The risk assessment proposes control methods in the form of adequate supervision, awareness training and debriefing/counselling to mitigate these risks, yet the author has found that few British police forces have adopted these strategies for SOCO’s. A second Home Office paper ‘A Strategy For a Healthy Police Service’ (2002), restated these guidelines when it recommended that it was the individual police authorities duty to identify high risk roles among their staff, and to provide adequate support to such employees. This responsibility is also reflected in law in the ‘Health and Safety at Work Act’ 1974 and the ‘Management of Safety at Work Regulations’ 1995 which stipulate that employers have the legal duty of care for their employees and have a liability for personal and psychological injury. Dr. George Everly’s research of emergency responders (quoted in: Slemko 2000.3), indicated that at any given time 15-32% of all emergency responders will be dealing with a reaction to Post-traumatic Stress, and there is a 30-64% chance that they will have a reaction to it during their lifetime. The figures for veterans of the Vietnam War is only 15-20% (Mock 2000).

page 206 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 A SOCO may spend hours, even days, in close quarters with a victim of a murder, photographing, searching, fingerprinting, moving etc. they will ‘get to know’ the deceased through observation of their house, family photographs, details of their recent activities, conversations with their family, and even from previous dealings with them in life etc. and will then attend a full forensic post-mortem of the body. Such images may become embedded in the minds of the officer and they must live with these memories the rest of their lives. Perhaps, as Baldwin (2003) states;

‘After a while the Crime Scene Investigator becomes a robot, performing their duty without any emotions. Or do they?’ (Baldwin 2003)

In recent years, crime scene examiners and other police staff have been utilised to a far greater extent in mass disaster work, examining mass war graves (in Bosnia, Rwanda and Iraq) and assisting with forensic operations in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, and most recently with the identification of victims following the Asian Tsunami in 2005. In 2004, following some debate on the subject by its own SOCO’s, Leicestershire Constabulary agreed to include SOCO in its ‘Clinical Supervision’ program, as a proactive strategy for managing the affects of traumatic stress in this segment of the workforce (a facility that has been available to rape trained, firearms and child protection officers for some time). Prior to the introduction of clinical supervision, for Leicestershire SOCO’s, the author surveyed the opinions and experiences of 52 operational SOCO’s, from 14 different police forces, in an attempt to gauge the extent to which SOCO’s experience traumatic stress, and the perceived benefits that a formalised strategy for clinical supervision would have.

SOCO SURVEY A total of fifty-two (52) operational SOCO’s participated in the authors’ survey, by means of a questionnaire, distributed via paper handouts, e-mail and web-site based questionnaires. The 52 participants who took part in the survey represented 14 different Police Forces in various geographical locations around the UK, these being:

Leicestershire Police Service of Northern Ireland Durham Surrey Northumbria Glasgow Metropolitan Lancashire Hampshire South Yorkshire British Transport Police (London) Derbyshire West Midlands Greater Manchester

The survey was designed to identify whether individual police forces were implementing programs of psychological care, Defusing, Critical Incident Debriefings (CISD’s), Counselling or Clinical Supervision, for SOCO’s, and whether management styles were appropriate for dealing with this sensitive issue. It was clear from the results that although such programs were in place, in fact all 14 police forces represented had some sort of program in place, SOCO’s were rarely included in them. Despite the fact that 81% of SOCO’s surveyed had heard of Critical Incident Debriefing only 8% had ever attended one. None of the SOCO’s surveyed had ever been offered Clinical Supervision.

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 207 Even at the departmental level it was clear that little support is being offered to SOCO’s; 60% of those questioned stated that they had never been asked if they were ‘OK’ (psychologically) by a manager, either during or following a stressful scene. Even prior to their appointment to the job only 2% undertook any form of psychometric testing (to gauge personality, resilience and suitability for the job) and alarmingly 38% were not even informed about the type of incident they were expected to attend. Unsurprisingly, given these results, 88% stated that they did not think that their employers had adequately looked after their mental health.

Table 1 Results obtained from the authors’ survey of 52 operational SOCO’s

Question Yes (%) NO (%) 1) Did you receive psychometric testing prior to being offered your job? 2 98 2) Were you told what sorts of incidents you would be expected to attend 62 38 in your job? 3) Do you feel that your force has looked after your mental health? 12 88 4) Have you heard of Critical Incident Debriefing? 81 19 5) Have you ever attended a Critical Incident Debriefing? 8 92 6) Have you ever been aware of other police staff attending debriefings in 73 27 relation to a case you worked on, that you were not invited to? 7) Have you ever been offered Clinical Supervision? 0 100 8) Has a senior member of staff ever asked you if you are OK 40 60 (psychologically) during or after a difficult job? 9) Have you ever suffered from flashbacks to a job you have attended? 52 48 10) Have you ever had a nightmare related to a job you have attended? 26 74 11) Have you ever broken down in tears relating to a job you have attended? 19 81 12) Are there any jobs you have refused to do due to psychological reasons? 15 85 13) Are there any sorts of jobs that you can’t cope with? 15 85 14) Have you ever tried to avoid jobs that you know you would find 31 69 emotionally difficult? 15) Have you ever voiced concerns about your mental health to a senior 25 75 member of staff? 16) Have you ever voiced concerns about your mental health to other 50 50 SOCO’s? 17) Do you talk to your partner/family about difficult jobs? 77 23

Symptoms of traumatic stress commonly include numbed responsiveness, impaired memory, intrusive and disturbing images or flashbacks, irritability, hypervigilance, impaired concentration, sleep disturbance, anxiety, depression, phobic avoidance, social withdrawal,

page 208 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 and substance abuse (Miller 2004). The author’s survey records the prevalence of several of these common symptoms among the questioned sample, notably of flashbacks (experienced by 52%), nightmares (experienced by 26%) and emotional breakdown (experienced by 19%). Also, avoidance behaviour was exhibited by 31%, who admitted that they have tried to avoid emotionally difficult jobs, and 15% who have flatly refused to attend such jobs. As detailed in the ‘Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – IV’ (Francis et al 1995) such symptoms and behaviours are typical of both post-traumatic stress disorder and acute stress disorder. In terms of coping mechanisms, the SOCO’s surveyed were twice as likely to speak to other SOCO’s about psychological issues (50%) as they were to their line managers (25%), though by far the majority (77%) felt happier talking to their partners or family about such issues. These statistics clearly show the importance of a safe and trusting environment for such discussions, and that these conditions are clearly not propagated by their employers.

WHAT CAN BE DONE? Given the undeniable presence of traumatic stress, and its associated debilitating symptoms, among scenes of crimes officers, it is perhaps time that the issue was addressed in a manner at least comparable to that of Police Officers, or, preferably in line with the support given to rape-trained, firearms and child protection officers. In this section I aim to suggest ways in which traumatic stress can be sensibly managed in this workforce for the benefit of all concerned.

Employment Screening The process of trauma prevention could feasibly begin even prior to an applicant being offered a job. Firstly, it should be the duty of the employer to fully describe the nature of the job applied for, so that the applicant is under no illusion of what might be expected of them should they be successful. Psychometric testing of applicants may also be of some use, to determine the psychological suitability of an applicant to do the job on offer.

Cognitive Reinterpretation/Reframing Having a strong belief that the job you are doing is worthwhile is a valuable mechanism by which to justify the emotional stress being experienced. This in itself defuses the traumatic response. The use of commendation plays an important role in such cases, and the value of informing an officer that they have done a good job under difficult circumstances goes a long way toward improving moral and self worth in a potentially traumatised officer.

Avoid Personalising Denial imagery, as a means by which to depersonalise traumatic scenes was found by Taylor and Frazer (1983) to be commonly used among workers who have to handle dead bodies. Many such individuals use denial imagery to deal with visual stressors. This ranged from seeing bodies as ‘objects’, ‘frozen meat’, ‘wax dummies’ or ‘scientific specimens’. Also, it was found that those individuals who adopted such imagery were less likely to later develop traumatic stress symptoms (Frazer 1983). Emotional attachment may similarly be decreased by teaching disaster workers to avoid looking at the faces and hands of the dead. (McCarroll et al 1993). The avoidance of media coverage of incidents may also be a useful tool to reduce over personalising the scene, through hearing details of individual victims etc.

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 209 Humour Humour is a commonly recognised trait among many professionals who work closely with traumatic subjects, ‘mortuary humour’ is a case in point that would be recognised by most SOCO’s. Far from being inappropriate under such difficult situations, humour allows the individual to insulate themselves against what they are experiencing, by preventing excessive identification with victims, and encouraging group bonding and mutual support, it also acts as a vent to feelings of anger, frustration, resentment, or sadness (Fullerton et al 1992), (Miller 1994), (Silva 1991).

Good Management It is the managers’ responsibility to have a grasp on the character and current condition of their staff and select individuals most suited (at the time) to the task in hand. If a manager, for example, is aware of a recent death in the family of one of their staff members it might not be suitable for that person to be sent to a death scene or post-mortem for a little while. This may appear like common sense, yet time and again one hears reports that even this basic principal is being ignored, through ignorance or operational necessity. Management must be made aware of their legal ‘duty of care’ for their staff and implement this in an appropriate manner.

Talking – Peer Groups/Supervision Perhaps one of the best-attested methods of reducing the effects of traumatic stress in the workplace is through open discussion. This may simply occur on a day-to-day basis between colleagues. Informally, the opportunity to express emotion is quite simply ‘friends listening to and assisting to each other after a traumatic event’ (Mitchell & Everly 1997.9). On a more formal footing discussion groups may be set up by a central body associated with the workplace. In the emergency services such peer support is usually provided in the form of ‘Defusing’, ‘Critical Incident Stress Debriefings’ (CIDS), or ‘Clinical Supervision’.

Critical Incident Stress Debriefings (CISD) Debriefing is a popular early intervention following a ‘critical incident’ in which small groups of people involved meet in a single lengthy session to share individual feelings and experiences. CISD takes the form of a structured group meeting, with a skilled peer leader and possibly a psychologist, which progresses through several distinct phases of discussion. The results of this survey indeed indicate that CISD is commonly made available to Police Officers, but for some reason is not being adequately provided for SOCO staff.

Clinical Supervision Another strategy to mitigate the potential problems of traumatic work stress is through the provision of a trained psychologist, for individual follow-up one-to-one ‘Clinical Supervision’. Since 2002 the Home Office has stated that all police forces are required to identify those roles that expose individuals to long term or intensely stressful situations and to provide appropriate psychological support. Clinical Supervision is perhaps a valuable process to fulfil this requirement. In August and September 2004, several months after the author’s initial survey, the Occupational Health Department of Leicestershire Constabulary introduced compulsory annual Clinical Supervision for all its operational SOCO’s, joining firearms, rape-trained and child protection officers as recognised ‘high risk roles’ requiring additional support of this nature.

page 210 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 Table 2 Survey of Leicestershire SOCO’s following the introduction of compulsory annual Clinical Supervision

Question A) How did you find Clinical Supervision? Helpful: A waste of time: 71% 29%

B) Would you ask for additional sessions if Yes: No: Not sure: you felt the need? 63% 33% 4%

C) Would you be happy to make a self-referral Yes: No: through your line manager? 46% 54%

D) Do you think a one a year compulsory session Yes: No: Too often: is enough? 49% 38% 13%

Once all Leicestershire SOCO’s had experienced their first session of Clinical Supervision a second questionnaire was sent out by the author to gauge the initial response to the new process (the results of this survey are illustrated in Table 2, below). In total 24 individuals (of 30 surveyed) expressed their views. The results, outlined in Table 2 (above), suggest that the majority of SOCO’s surveyed had positive attitudes toward the process, with 71% stating that they found the session helpful. Questions were also asked about the regularity of ‘supervision’ sessions, and whether once a year was perceived to be adequate or not. Again the response was a positive one, with 49% stating that once a year was adequate, and 38% who thought that more sessions should be provided. Only 13% of those surveyed thought that one session a year was too many, yet this response was not given by all of the 29% that had previously stated that they thought the process a ‘waste of time’. Clearly most officers surveyed understood the need for psychological welfare even though they may themselves not fully appreciate the process.

CONCLUSIONS As this and other surveys have shown, there is strong supporting evidence that secondary exposure to traumatic incidents, has a sympathetic effect on the SOCO’s that experience them. Most such professionals readily admit to suffering the common symptoms of traumatic exposure. Many such workers also state that they have their own ways of coping with such exposure, in the form of avoidance behaviour, denial, humour and even alcohol abuse! Such personal coping mechanisms are doubtlessly effective during initial exposure, as a ‘short term fix’ to get them through the day, however, the long-term effect of such strategies are dubious. Clearly, to date, little has been done, on an organisational level, to avoid the cumulative effect of traumatic exposure in this workforce. It is crucial that people’s reactions/emotions are monitored, on a regular basis, so as to spot any early warning signs. What is very well understood is that individuals are often unaware of the cumulative exposure to trauma that they are developing, and that the more emotionally traumatised they become the less likely they are to recognise the symptoms they are displaying (Everley 1989.318), (Miller 2004). For this very reason the provision of compulsory meetings with supervisors and welfare professionals is an essential process to avoid the development of serious psychological problems and ‘officer burnout’.

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 211 Officer ‘burnout’ is a very real problem for SOCO departments. Frequently ‘burnout’ is reported after about 8-10 years of frontline work, when officers begin to report feeling numb to what they are experiencing, that they have ‘seen it all before’, their work morale diminishes, their attention to detail fails and they become somewhat jaded in their attitude (Brown 2003). Other indicators of burnout may include missing crucial evidence, not properly documenting evidence, displaying a careless attitude to victims and other officers (Baldwin 2003). These are all effects of cumulative exposure to traumatic incidents which may be compounded by the effects of rotating unsociable shifts, irregular sleep and eating patterns and long working hours (Stephens 1996)… all routine aspects of a SOCO’s working life. As Mitchell and Everly (1997.57) state, ‘carefully managing the human resources in our organisation is the single most important management task in any business or organisation’. The good management of traumatic stress should not be adopted by an organisation simply for the reasons of legal responsibility and through fear of litigation. The provision of such support makes operational sense, in that officers will be able to undertake their jobs in an effective and efficient manner.

REFERENCES Baldwin, H.B. (2003) Crime Scene Investigators: Are yours burned out? www.feinc.net/csi-burn.htm. (21/4/04). Brown, P.G. (2003) Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Law Enforcement. Criminal Justice Institute. School of Law Enforcement, Supervision Session XXII November 07, 2003. Everly, G.S. (1989) A Clinical Guide to the Treatment of the Human Stress Response. Cambs. Mass. Harvard University. Frances, A; First, M.B. & Pincus, H.A. (1995) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – IV American Psyciatric Press, inc. Fullerton, C.S., McCarroll, J.E., Ursano, R.J. & Wright, K.M. (1992) Psychological Responses of Rescue Workers: Firefighters and trauma. American Journal of Orthopssychiatry, 62, 371-378. McCarroll, J.E.; Ursano, R.J.; Ventis, W.L.; Fullerton, C.S.; Oates, G.L.; Friedman, H.; Shean, G.D. & Wright, K.M. (1993). Anticipation of Handling the Dead: Effects of Gender and Experience. British Journal of Clinical Prychology (1993), 32, 466-468 Printed in Great Britain. www.usuhs.mil/psy/anticipation.html (Viewed 27/5/04). Miller, L. (1994) Civilian Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Clinical syndromes and psychotherapeutic strategies. Psychotherapy, 31, 655-664. – (2004) Law Enforcement Traumatic Stress: Clinical Syndromes and Intervention Strategies. www.aaets.org/arts/art73.htm (Viewed 21/4/04). Mitchell, J.T. & Everly, G.S. (1997). Critical Incident Stress Debriefing. (2nd ed.). Ellicot City; Chevron Publishing Corporation. Mock, J.P. (2000). Police Officers and Post-traumatic stress disorder: www.pw1.netcom/~jpmock/ptsd.htm (Viewed 21/4/04) Silva, M.N. (1991) The Delivery of Mental Health Services to Law Enforcement Officers. In J.T. Reese, J.M. Horn & C. Dunning (Eds.) Critical Incidents in Policing (rev ed., 335-341). Stephens, C. (1996) Debriefing, Social Support and PTSD in the New Zealand Police: Testing a multidimensional model of organisational traumatic stress. The Australasian Journal of Disaster and Trauma Studies www.massey.ac.nz/~trauma/issues/1997-1/cvs1.htm (Viewed 13.5.04). Slemko, J. (2000) Post Traumatic Stress and the Crime Scene Investigator. Edmonton Police Service. Taylor, A.J.W. & Frazer, A.G. (1983) The Stress of Post-Disaster Body Handling and Victim Identification Work. Journal of Human Stress. 39 (2), 4-12.

page 212 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 FEATURES

Fingerprint Society Lectures 2005, Brighton

The Fingerprint Society thanks all our overseas delegates for making the 2005 conference in Brighton so special.

This year, the Fingerprint Society Lectures were held in Brighton. As well as attracting good weather, the resort also attracted a large number of delegates and a world class lecture itinerary. John Smith (Forensic Alliance), talked about the recording of latent prints using lighting and new photographic techniques. Richard Garner from Emerging Technology Services (ETS) Ltd conducted a lecture on Fingerprints in the biometric marketplace. A few short years ago, the large-scale use of biometrics identification systems was almost entirely limited to the criminal justice sector, using fingerprints. However, the requirement for civil identification systems within the UK and abroad is moving at a rapid pace and the dominance of fingerprints is being challenged by other biometrics technologies. In his presentation, Richard provided a brief overview of civil identification programs (including UK Passport Service and US VISIT), then examined the changing role that fingerprints will play (and the techniques and technology that will support this), the challenges from other biometrics technology and to the Fingerprint Society and its members.

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 213 John Smith

Jeffrey Walajtys, CLPE, Director, Forensics, Lumen IQ, highlighted new research associated with 3 dimensional imaging of latent fingerprints. This presentation was an introduction to the benefit of 3-D visualisation for fingerprint analysis. Human beings have a limited ability to perceive 2-D greyscale data. LumenIQ software converts 2-D fingerprint images into a dynamic 3-D surface map that allows the examiner to visualise latent print detail more thoroughly. This provides more information for analysis during the manual edit stage of AFIS and during fingerprint comparisons. Penny Cooper (Director of CPD Training (Inns of Court School of Law, London) gave a most enlightening lecture on ‘What makes an expert witness?’ This included a description of sound techniques for giving evidence in court and included a fascinating role play session where Penny was able to silence Dave Lloyd!! Quite a feat! Expert witness work was once considered by some to be a lucrative sideline: minimal risk and plenty of profit. However, recent high profile cases have brought experts’ performances into the spotlight and have even resulted in calls being made for accreditation, quality marking if you like. Experts have been named and shamed in the press in some cases. In the recent case of Phillips v Symes (2004) a psychiatrist was ordered to pay the legal costs of the parties after the Court found that he had failed to fulfil his duties as an expert. The costs were not covered by the psychiatrist’s own insurance policy. Legal costs in High Court cases can run to hundreds of thousands of pounds. In many cases in which experts have come under scrutiny, it was not that the expert intended to mislead the court but rather that he or she was ignorant of the rules governing experts. But before you conclude that expert witness work is too risky, consider what it means to be an expert and what training you can undertake to prepare for the role of an expert witness.

page 214 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 All courts are not the same An expert might be asked to give evidence in a variety of different courts or tribunals: the Crown Court in a criminal trial or in the High Court in a civil trial. Different courts and tribunals have different rules and procedures. The expert should ensure he is familiar with these. Take for example the “standard of proof”, in other words the degree to which a case must be proved. In a criminal trial the prosecution must prove the case “beyond reasonable doubt”. In a civil case the party bringing the claim must prove their case “on the balance of probabilities”. These phrases are not bandied about lightly by the legal professionals: they impose significantly different evidential obligations on the parties.

What it takes Any fingerprint professional with particular expertise derived from experience or knowledge could, in theory, be an expert witness. In practice, the key test is whether or not the Judge thinks it will be in the interests of justice to hear from an expert. If the Judge is satisfied that the person put forward as an expert has the appropriate knowledge and/or experience and their opinion evidence will assist the court, then the Judge is likely to want to hear the evidence. However the expert needs to be aware of aspects of the legal process which go beyond his fingerprint expertise.

Rules and duties All civil cases (e.g. claims for damages for personal injury or breach of contract) are heard in the County Court or High Court. The procedure is governed by the Civil Procedure Rules, “CPR”. When Lord Woolf introduced the CPR in 1999, so keen was he to see an end to partisan experts, or “hired guns”, that an entire section (CPR, Part 35) and a Practice Direction were dedicated to the use of experts. Experts must know the relevant parts of the CPR inside out. First and foremost an expert witness should know that the CPR states that an expert’s overriding duty is to assist the court. The duty overrides any obligation to the person from whom he has received instructions or by whom he is paid. Experts should also be aware that the CPR gives guidance to experts about the form of the written report. Whether in the civil court, the criminal court or any other tribunal, the expert must realise that failure to take a scrupulously independent approach is against the interests of justice and could ultimately land the expert in professional and financial difficulties.

Trial and error An expert who has written a scrupulously independent, thorough, well balanced and fair report may still have to face the ordeal of giving oral evidence. It can be an ordeal because the trial process is adversarial – the two parties fight it out under the watchful eye of the judge. The judge acts like an umpire ensuring fair play but tends not to intervene. The barrister on the “other side” will challenge the expert witness on the stand. How to withstand hostile cross-examination is not something most experts would choose to “learn on the job”! And they don’t have to. Witness preparation training has become commonplace. Mock cross-examination, so long as it is not on the facts of an actual case before the courts, will give an expert the chance to experience cross-examination in a safe learning environment. Experts find it reassuring to learn about the practices and procedures of the courtroom. They may find it shocking to have their qualifications questioned, their

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 215 Dave Lloyd USSS is silenced!! research methods doubted and their integrity challenged but all of these things can happen in cross-examination. Knowing that it can happen means you will be better equipped to deal with it.

What is the answer? Baroness Kennedy QC in her July 2004 report into Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy, called for the Royal Colleges to put in place a system of accreditation for medical experts. However, a consultation paper issued in November 2004 by the Legal Services Commission proposes that most experts (this includes fingerprint experts) be accredited by the Council for Registration of Forensic Practitioners (CRFP). While miscarriages of justice involving expert evidence frequently give rise to calls for a system of accreditation there are difficulties: a system would inevitably cost money to administer and accreditation in forensic skills will not guarantee an expert is up to date in his field. To accredit or not to accredit? The debate goes on but what can experts do in the interim? Get training: perhaps I would say this as I am a strong advocate of the benefits of Continuing Professional Development (CPD). City University offers a three day course on the law, procedure, written reports and oral evidence specifically for experts. In my view, there has never been a greater need for high quality expert witness training and there has never been a greater need for high quality experts who can offer their services to the courts. Do not be put off expert witness work – it will be challenging but it is vital to our system of justice. Specialist training for the role will help you meet that need. Lord Justice Judge recently put it like this:

“Without expert evidence justice could not be done in our courts, or in the courts of any

page 216 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 civilised country. And with expert evidence difficulties are absolutely inevitable, not least because those with the decision to make in court are dependent on experts to say who is right and who is wrong. If we knew who was right and who was wrong then, in reality, we should not need experts”

In other words: no expert witnesses, no justice. This year, the conference welcomed many friends from overseas. John Onstwedder of the Illinois State Crime Lab talked about Latent Print Accreditation and Certification. The purpose of this presentation was to discuss certification by the International Association for Identification (IAI). Although IAI certification originates in the United States, latent print examiners from around the world can take advantage of this opportunity. There are many benefits to certification both personal and professional. Typically international members outside the United States have been hesitant about the process. Hopefully this presentation will motivate latent print examiners to participate in the certification program. Bob Hille (Past President of the RMD IAI) and Crime Lab Manager, Lakewood PD, Colorado gave an International perspective on the effective management of a busy forensic unit. Generally speaking, the management of a crime laboratory is, in all likelihood, fairly universal. However, this presentation attempted to hit upon a few topics that may provide a different perspective from one country to another; such as where does the money come from, accreditation issues and expectations from the court system. It is also recognised that the biggest factor in managing a lab is the effective management of its personnel. This presentation addressed some of the current “people issues”, inquiring if these issues are prominent in both countries. Some of these issues include “generations X, Y &Z”, work ethic, attitudes, foundational education and recognising how people think, directly affects communication skills. Gerry Gardner from 3G Identification Ltd. Talked about AFIS and Fast ‘Live ID’ Applications. This presentation looked at the use of AFIS in ‘Live ID’ rather than the traditional forensic use. Using systems such as the Immigration and Asylum Fingerprint System and Eurodac as real examples he examined the use of AFIS for identifying in ‘real time’ those being fingerprinted. The architecture and configuration philosophy was discussed, as were the traditional performance parameters such as accuracy. Further attention was given to the Speed of Identification vs Accuracy vs Quality equation and the impact on the business workflow. Tom ‘Grif’ Griffin from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation gave an emotional and very personal account of the forensic investigation following the Columbine High School massacre and he went on to discuss lessons learned in Mass Crime Scene Reconstruction. On 20 April 1999 the worst school shooting in United States history occurred at Columbine High School in Jefferson County, Colorado. Personnel from city, county, state and federal agencies assisted the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office in the processing of multiple scenes at the school. Approximately 75 individuals formed the teams that took on the task of processing this extreme mass crime scene, some spending almost two weeks on scene. Activities before the processing began included assigning individuals to teams, team responsibilities, standardising approaches and documentation, and continuous communications to ensure uniformity. The presentation included these topics, some evidence collection and storage, and the strategies and processing techniques involved. Glenn Langenberg gave a unique and eccentric lecture on the “Defence Against the Dark

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 217 Grif in thoughtful reflection after a question from the audience.

Arts: Defending Against the Critic’s Curse” “Daubert issues and discussion of the critics of the profession”. It was based on a Harry Potter theme. Not only was it informative, but the audience were thrown sweets for correct answers as well! This presentation focused on three U.S. critics of Friction Ridge Skin (FRS) Analysis. These critics arose during the first Daubert challenge to FRS Analysis, U.S. v. Mitchell (1999). Since this challenge, these critics have testified in a number of other hearings and given numerous lectures and interviews regarding the failings of FRS Analysis. In this presentation he explored the various tactics and arguments employed by these critics. He also explored the appropriate defence and preparation against these critics. Ian Gledhill and Mick Carling from Lincolnshire Police gave the conference an insight into research they are doing into the Digital capture of latent prints from crime scenes. This included a live demonstration. Latent prints can be digitally captured at crime scenes, transmitted electronically to a fingerprint bureau and searched within a matter of minutes of being found. Its success depends on two factors, the speed of data transmission and the quality of the captured image. The system uses commercial GPRS data transmission and wavelet based compression algorithms to maintain the quality of the image for both the viewer and the NAFIS search engine. The system offers the potential for fingerprinting to become the only form of forensics that can produce evidence sufficient to arrest and charge while the scene is still being examined. Dr Itiel Dror entered into a frank and sometimes volatile discussion on ‘The Vulnerability of fingerprint science’ and potential pitfalls in the identification process. He went on to explain how they can be addressed and overcome. The psychology of latent print comparison is becoming a central theme in many academic establishments from the UK and overseas. It

page 218 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 is apparent that this line of enquiry will be central to new scientific thinking in the future of our profession. Fingerprint identification has come under a lot of criticism in recent years. The doubts about the validity of fingerprints as a means of identification have been largely brought about by a number of well-publicised erroneous identifications. These errors have led to questioning the very basis of fingerprint as a science as well as the identification process. Whether these criticisms are correct or not, the fingerprint community needs to embrace this critical attention and renewed interest in fingerprints. The Forensic community needs to respond to this challenge that has been presented: Appreciating where fingerprint examination fits within the sciences (if at all)? And how can fingerprint science can be applied most efficiently, avoiding as much as possible (totally?) any pitfalls. The talk presented research conducted that addresses both of the above issues. Itiel Dror is a senior lecturer in cognitive sciences at the University of Southampton (School of Psychology). He holds a number of postgraduate degrees, including a PhD from Harvard University (USA). Dr Dror’s work focuses on the intersection of basic science and applied research. His interests include information-processing underling a wide range of cognitive phenomena, particularly in high-level cognition involved in pattern recognition, decision making, mental imagery, and visual-spatial abilities. Dr Dror has a special interest in biometrics, with emphasis on fingerprint and face identification. His scientific and applied work in these areas focus on screening and training of forensic experts, on cognitive influences in making identifications, and on use of technology for identification. As part of Dr Dror’s interest in technology, he is currently editing six special issues of the journal Pragmatic and Cognition devoted to Technology & Cognition.

Itiel receives a momento from Steve Haylock.

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 219 Ron Smith, President of Ron Smith and Associates gave both an entertaining and thoughtful lecture on the merits of ‘Learning and Laughing’ and ‘how to keep them begging for more’. In Ron’s own inimitable way he described how he uses his experience to hold an audience during a lecture or class, and how to get the best out of a training session. Ron Smith is President of “Ron Smith & Associates, Inc.”, a forensic consultation company located in Meridian, Mississippi which specialises in case consultation, forensic training and management services. He began his career with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1972, moving on to the Alabama Bureau of Investigation and from 1978 to 2002 with the Mississippi Crime Laboratory, retiring as Associate Director. He has over thirty years of experience in latent print, crime scene and laboratory management practices and is certified by the I.A.I. as a latent print examiner and senior crime scene analyst. In July of 2001, he was awarded the “John A. Dondero Memorial Award”, which is the highest award bestowed by the International Association for Identification for exemplary contributions to the science of forensic identification. Ron has lectured on courtroom testimony techniques, latent print examinations and crime scene related topics in over forty-five U.S. states and numerous other countries. This entertaining, fast paced lecture looked at several successful methods of communicating material and messages to a group of forensic professionals such as those found within the Fingerprint Society. The objective was to convey to the delegates the understanding that effective and enjoyable presentations do not just happen, but are the result of research, preparation and practice. Most great speakers are not born; they are made through their continual efforts and the efforts of their trainers. Once the student learns that this is an acquirable skill, they become more receptive to new ideas regarding the “Science of Presentations” and begin to develop their own personal repertoire of teaching tools.

Ron assesses if he needs more coffee during his lecture.

page 220 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 Jack Deans of Gardiner Associates gave a practical presentation and explained to the conference that it is possible to retrieve fingerprints from fire scenes. This lecture was greeting with interest and some surprise and just what can be done to find latent prints at arson scenes. Since retiring from the Metropolitan Police Mr Deans has been engaged as a Fingerprint Consultant for Gardiner Associates, a company that specialises in fire scene investigation training. For the past two years he has conducted a series of projects on the effective retrieval of latent prints from fire scenes. This presentation outlined some of the experiments conducted, as well as highlighted the likelihood of finding useful friction ridge detail from exhibits recovered from such scenes. Alice Maceo from the Las Vegas Metro PD Forensic Lab once again graced our conference with her attendance. This year she agreed to give a lecture on wound healing and the ageing of skin. This proved to be one of the most fascinating lectures of the entire weekend and provided the audience with an update on latest research looking into the biological uniqueness of friction ridge skin examination. David Fairhirst talked about how the comparison phase of the identification process relies on the brain’s natural memory storage, recall and recognition processes. This lecture presented a model of the psychology of memory and how it relates directly to the comparison of fingerprints. The effectiveness of commonly taught latent print search techniques is explained along with some of the more peculiar traits shown by some examiners. Finally the conference was offered an expanded version of the AFIS analogy is used to model the complete comparison process. John Vanderkolk concluded the conference proper with a final contribution on cognitive psychological research in Fingerprint Recognition from a US Perspective. He also talked about the determination of the source of an image resulting, in part, from an understanding of the source, following an acceptable examination methodology, understanding levels of detail in images, and understanding the relationship between quality and quantity of information obtained by the examiner from the images. The examination method of the recurring application of Analysis, Comparison, Evaluation and Verification (ACE+V), understanding the levels of detail in images and use of quality and quantity of all the information in the images was discussed. Visual representations of these topics were presented and explained as to how these representations can be used to help explain the thought processes involved in the Forensic Individualisation of Images. The lectures were great, but many agreed that the Gala dinner was just a little different this year. Our very special guest was the famed cartoonist Bill Tidy who presented a slightly different and very funny history of Fingerprints through the ages using his talent for parody and caricature. The Dinner was also proud to host ACC Williams from Sussex Police, and Chief Constable Michael Baxter, Chairman of the National Fingerprint Board, who received the prestigious Henry Medal for 2005.

The Fingerprint Society looks forward to welcoming you all to Scotland next year. The conferences get better every year and 2006 should be no exception.

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 221 Mr Baxter receives the Henry Medal from President Steve Haylock.

Bill Tidy explains the history of fingerprints, from Adam and Eve onwards!

page 222 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 Fire Investigation Courses to Aid Battle Against Arsonists

Help to bring arsonists to court is being offered through a series of specialist training courses tackling fire investigation. The training courses have been specifically designed for police forces, fire services, local authorities and the insurance industry. They are part of a unique suite of crime-related training courses, dealing with everything from the recovery of fingerprints to the identification of victims of disasters, developed by award-winning crime investigation specialists Forensic Pathways Ltd. All the courses are delivered by the Staffordshire-based company’s staff and consultants, who are all experts in their own particular fields of crime investigation. The three fire-related courses will be led by Graham Thompson, one of the UK?s most respected fire investigation experts after a 20-year career with Cleveland Police and Cleveland Fire Brigade. They deal with:

G Introduction to Fire Scene Investigation G Introduction to Fatal Fire and Explosion Investigation G Introduction to Vehicle Fire Investigation

“Fires, whether started deliberately or by accident, cost the UK economy millions of pounds every year and cause thousands of serious injuries and hundreds of deaths,” said Deb Leary, Managing Director of Forensic Pathways. “Despite this, there are relatively few people trained to investigate fire scenes, gather evidence, correctly identify the cause and identify those responsible.” “Our courses have very obvious benefits for both the police and the fire service in helping them train up officers to carry out this very important work,” she added But they are equally useful for local authorities and for the insurance industry, which currently pays out huge sums of money in claims arising from fires where the cause has either been incorrectly identified or not recorded. “Accessing this kind of specialist training is currently time-consuming and frustrating for these organisations and we hope our courses will enable them to increase their ability to deal with the aftermath of fires”. Deb, who is the current British Female Inventor of the Year in recognition of her innovative work towards crime investigation, said she was delighted to have the services of Graham Thompson at Forensic Pathways disposal. Graham served as a crime scene investigator with Cleveland Police for 16 years before being seconded to Cleveland Fire Brigade in October 2001 as a specialist fire scene investigator. He has attended or investigated more than 500 arsons and investigated and reported on more than 30 fatal fire scenes, as well as being involved in numerous forensic investigations at major crime scenes. In addition, he was responsible for designing, developing, delivering and evaluating specialist training for service police and fire officers in Cleveland and fire and forensic training for personnel working in the judicial system.

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 223 Nationally, he played a major role as Co-ordinating Lead Assessor in the development of the Registration of Fire Investigators Training Scheme, launched in January 2005 by the Centre for the Registration of Forensic Practitioners. Graham said: “In the fire scene investigation courses we will deal with developing the skills and knowledge needed to examine a fire scene, recover items and how to present evidence in court. “In the course dealing with fatal fires this is taken a step further, as the first police officer or firefighter on the scene has to take responsibility for ensuring the body of the victim and other evidence is protected.” “The specialist course dealing with vehicle fires is designed for anyone with minimum professional training and experience.” Deb Leary added: “Any organisation interested in undergoing any kind of fire training can be assured they will get the benefit of one of the top experts in the field.” All fire investigations courses organised by Forensic Pathways are for a minimum of five and maximum of 20 delegates and will be held at venues across the UK, as well as the company’s head office in Tamworth, Staffordshire. Forensic Pathways continues to break new ground in the field of forensic investigation, with new products constantly in the development phase. More information about products and services available from Forensic Pathways is available by emailing [email protected] or by visiting the company website at www.forensic-pathways.com

FERRT Student of the year 2004

The focus of the Society is primarily education. We were again delighted this year to be able to sponsor a student of the year award at the National Training Centre for Scientific Support, specifically the Forensic Evidence Recording and Recovery Techniques course (FERRT). This is presented to the best student of the preceding year (2004).

This year, the winner of the award was Alan Bennett.

The FERRT Award presentation took place at the Essex FHQ on Wednesday 22nd July 2005.

Group: Peter Ablett, CENTREX, Jackie Bennett, Alan Bennett, Viv Galloway and CC David Stevens.

page 224 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 SCIENCE

The Use of Infra-red Filters to Remove Background Patterns in Fingerprint Imaging

by S.M. Bleay and T. Kent PSDB, Woodcock Hill, Sandridge, St Albans, Herts. AL4 9HQ

ABSTRACT The paper describes a short study into the use of infra-red filters in conjunction with a digital camera with sensitivity in the near infra-red region for the removal of coloured background patterns from fingerprint images. Many of the pigments used in printing inks are transparent when viewed in the infra-red region of the spectrum. Some of the fingerprint development processes used to develop latent marks give products that are visible when viewed in reflected light using an infra-red cut-on filter, and this technique has been shown to be effective in removing multicoloured backgrounds from marks developed using Physical Developer, Vacuum Metal Deposition, Black Powder Suspension, Aluminium Powder and Small Particle Reagent. Some examples of background removal are illustrated, and recommendations made for further work in this area.

INTRODUCTION Imaging articles in the infra-red (IR) region of the spectrum is an established technique in document examination, where variations in the reflectivity or fluorescence of different inks can be revealed or enhanced by use of appropriate IR filters [1-4]. The constituents used in inks from different manufacturers often have different responses to IR radiation, even though they may appear visually to have the same colour. As a consequence, it may be possible to detect alterations to documents, or identify forgeries produced using inks from alternative sources. The presence of coloured inks is also important in the field of fingerprint imaging, where fingerprints deposited on multicoloured or patterned backgrounds may be difficult to image in their entirety. In some cases it may be possible to use equipment such as monochromators to enhance contrast between the fingerprint and a single colour background, but where there are inks of more than one colour present it will not be possible to improve the contrast of the whole fingerprint in this way. This paper reports the results of a short investigation into the use of IR filters in combination with a digital imaging system, with the aim of removing patterned backgrounds from fingerprint images. The digital imaging system is suited to this approach because the CCD chips used in such systems typically have a responsivity that extends into the near IR (700 – 2000nm) region, and images produced at these wavelengths can be captured and rapidly viewed on screen. The use of IR microscopy in the detection of latent marks has been reported previously [5], the author utilising the difference between black powder (IR opaque) and a dark green bottle (IR translucent) to obtain contrast. Although successful, the results of this study did not

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 225 Figure 1. Schematic diagram showing the main features of the IRIS workstation.

Figure 2. Postcard imaged under tungsten light with IR blocking filter in place. Marks developed using Physical Developer.

page 226 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 Figure 3a. Postcard imaged under tungsten light with RG630 filter in place. Marks developed using Physical Developer.

Figure 3b. As above, with RG780 filter.

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 227 Figure 3c. As above, with RG1000 filter.

Figure 4. Postcard imaged using monochromator (blue light) with IR blocking filter in place.

page 228 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 appear to lead to a widespread use of IR imaging in fingerprint analysis. More recent studies into the use of Chemical Imaging as a means of fingerprint detection do utilise near-IR wavelengths [6], but these are in combination with measurements over a significantly wider range of wavelengths and the overall measurement process will be more time-consuming than the near-instantaneous imaging process described in this paper.

EXPERIMENTAL The digital imaging system used in these studies was the Integrated Rapid Imaging System (IRIS) produced by PSDB, fitted with a Roper Megaplus 4.2i camera (Class I CCD chip). A schematic diagram of the main features of IRIS is shown in Figure 1. IRIS has two camera filter wheels that can be moved in front of the lens, the first containing a series of filters for conventional fluorescence imaging, and the second with a series of IR filters. In normal use, the second filter wheel is set to ‘IR Block’, which means that the IR wavelengths are blocked from reaching the camera and the image captured does not contain any information at these wavelengths. The IR Blocking filters used transmit < 10% of radiation above 700nm and < 1% above 730nm. The remaining seven positions contain Schott glass filters RG630, RG645, RG695, RG715, RG780, RG850 and RG1000, with 45.5±6% cut-on at the wavelength value stated in nanometres. The transition from blocking to transmission occurs over a wavelength range of ~50nm for filters up to RG715, and is more gradual for the higher cut-on filters. By turning the upper camera filter wheel, IR filters with progressively higher blocking wavelengths can be employed (i.e. RG695 filter blocks all wavelengths below 695 nm and so on). This may reveal differences in IR reflectivity between inks that appear similar in white light. The objective of the work was to establish if it was possible to find combinations of camera filter and fingerprint development technique for which the background inks could be made to disappear and the fingerprint remain visible. The development techniques thought to be most suited to meet these requirements were those producing a metallic deposit, as the response of a metal to IR radiation is likely to be very different from the organic constituents of inks and the inorganic, non-conductive pigments used in them. Techniques likely to give the best results were therefore:

G Powdered samples (using Al flake or magnetic black powder) G Physical Developer G Vacuum Metal Deposition G Small Particle Reagent

Of the techniques above, marks developed using powders are usually lifted from the scene and therefore this technique was not the main focus of the study. The investigation was conducted by obtaining a series of samples typical of those that may be encountered by a fingerprint laboratory, with the added requirement that the background contained two or more printed ink colours. In some cases the samples were treated in the ‘as-received’ condition, with marks left by normal handling. In other cases planted marks were placed deliberately across colour boundaries to make subsequent imaging more challenging. The samples used in the study were as follows:

G Postcard treated with Physical Developer G Cheques treated with Physical Developer

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 229 G Catalogue treated with Physical Developer G Polythene bag treated with Vacuum Metal Deposition (gold/zinc process) G Polystyrene tile treated with Small Particle Reagent

Cheques and postcards treated with ninhydrin were also evaluated in the same way, to explore the difference between marks developed using metallic and organic reagents. In the examination of the samples, the mark was first studied under standard tungsten lighting conditions and the digital workstation focused accordingly using the ‘Barnes Wallis’ laser focusing system. The top filter wheel was set to ‘IR Block’, and the lower filter wheel to ‘None’ (i.e. no fluorescence filter present). An image of the mark was captured and adjusted in terms of contrast and brightness to give the optimum image quality. For imaging in the far red and near IR regions of the spectrum only, it is recognised that because the wavelength of the radiation used to produce the image is different, the optimum focus position will be too. The IRIS workstation has the option of setting a secondary focusing cursor displaced from the standard focus position by a distance appropriate to the wavelength of light being used. The secondary cursor function was activated, and the laser focusing system used to focus the digital camera against this cursor. This was carried out before introducing the IR filters because these would render the red focusing laser spot invisible. The upper filter wheel was then moved through each of the IR filters in turn, recording images for filters in the range RG630 to RG1000. Minor adjustments to focus were carried out visually. The effect of using a monochromator to suppress background was also investigated. The IRIS workstation is attached to a Quaser 2000 light source (manufactured by Mason Vactron, UK), and a monochromator is also integrated into the workstation to enable such examinations to be carried out. The Quaser was selected as the incident light source, and set to ‘White Light’. The monochromator dial on the front of the IRIS workstation was rotated so that a Veril linear filter was introduced in front of the incident light. The monochromator has a slit that allows a 25nm portion of the visible spectrum to be viewed at any one time, and by continuing to turn the monochromator dial the exhibit could be viewed using a narrow waveband of light across the entire visible spectrum. A wavelength band giving maximum suppression of the coloured background was selected, and an image captured for comparison with those produced using the IR filters. In all cases, the digitally captured image was then further modified by optimising contrast and brightness, in some cases producing a negative, inverted image to give the optimum image quality. There was no additional use of image enhancement tools to remove patterned backgrounds, all changes seen in the image being solely attributed to the use of IR filters.

RESULTS Postcard treated with ninhydrin This exhibit was provided as an example of a widely used fingerprint development process giving an organic product. After development with ninhydrin, the postcard had several marks that contained clear ridge detail but that crossed over regions of blue ballpoint writing. On introducing the IR filters, the ninhydrin marks could no longer be seen when imaged with any filter above RG630. The blue ballpoint writing became progressively fainter as the lower wavelength cut-on of the filter increased, fading from view for filters higher than ~RG715. For this exhibit, the use of IR filters to suppress the background was unsuccessful because the developed mark was also suppressed when the filter was in place.

page 230 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 Figure 5a. Cheque imaged under tungsten light with IR blocking filter in place. Marks developed using Physical Developer.

Figure 5b. As above, with RG780 filter.

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 231 Postcard treated with Physical Developer A similar postcard to that above was obtained and developed using Physical Developer. Several marks were observed that crossed colour boundaries (predominantly mid-blue printing) and regions of blue ballpoint writing. These were first imaged using conventional lighting and the ‘IR Block’ filter in place to provide baseline information, Figure 2. The same marks were next imaged using the range of IR filters fitted to the IRIS workstation. When viewed with the RG630 filter, most of the background printing and ballpoint writing became noticeably fainter, but the Physical Developer marks remained clear. Printed text in black ink was not affected by the introduction of the IR filter. As filters with progressively higher cut-on frequencies were introduced, the background and writing faded further, whilst the Physical Developer marks remained unchanged. Some examples are shown in Figure 3. However, for the higher cut-on filters (e.g. RG1000), it became increasingly difficult to produce a sharp image. This is because longer wavelength radiation is used to form the image, and consequently the resolution of the image becomes worse. It is therefore necessary to identify an optimum IR filter that provides as much background as possible but minimises loss in resolution. By visual analysis of the images produced, it was considered that the best images were obtained by using the RG780 or RG715 filters. The same exhibit was imaged using the Quaser 2000 in monochromator mode, using light in the blue region of the spectrum to suppress the blue ink printing in the border and the blue ballpoint writing. Although a reasonable amount of background suppression could be obtained, the monochromator was not considered as effective as the IR filters in this study, see Figure 4.

Cheque treated with Physical Developer Several cheques bearing marks obtained by treatment with Physical Developer were used in this study, including those from most major clearing banks. These differed in terms of the colours used to print the cheque, and the complexity of background printing. In many cases the cheques also bore the marks of rubber stamps and handwriting in different types of ballpoint pen. Similar results were obtained to those seen in the studies on the postcard; background patterns in blue, pink, green and yellow inks were suppressed by the IR filters, as were overstamps in green and red ink, and ballpoint writing in blue and black ink. Printed text in black ink and some rubber stamps in black ink were unaffected by the IR filters and remained visible. An example of a mark on a cheque where more ridge detail is revealed by the use of IR filters is shown in Figure 5.

Colour magazine treated with Physical Developer The exhibit used in this study was a colour catalogue, with deliberately planted marks over colour boundaries. The background printing contained significantly more colours than either the cheques or the postcard, enabling a fuller investigation of the range of colours that could be suppressed by the IR filters. Figure 6 shows the results of this study, indicating that many of the colours (including violet, dark blue, yellow and magenta) used in this particular printing process can be rendered invisible using the IR filters. As a consequence, the majority of the ridge detail becomes visible in the filtered image.

Polythene bag treated with Vacuum Metal Deposition (gold/zinc process) All the exhibits above were studied using reflected tungsten light. To investigate whether the

page 232 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 Figure 6a. Catalogue page imaged under tungsten light with IR blocking filter in place. Marks developed using Physical Developer.

Figure 6b. As above, with RG780 filter.

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 233 Figure 7a. Plastic bag imaged in transmitted white light with IR blocking filter in place. Marks developed using Vacuum Metal Deposition.

Figure 7b. As above, with RG 780 filter.

page 234 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 technique was also valid for exhibits viewed with transmitted light, a polythene bag with blue, red and black printing had marks deliberately planted across colour boundaries. The marks on the bag were then developed using the conventional gold/zinc Vacuum Metal Deposition Technique as outlined in the PSDB Manual of Fingerprint Development Techniques (7). The bag was then viewed on a transmitted light panel fitted to the IRIS workstation, this being the only light source used during imaging. Viewed in transmitted light with the ‘IR Block’ filter in place, the developed mark was mostly visible but certain regions of the mark needed very different contrast and brightness conditions to others and it was not possible to capture a single good image of the whole mark. By using the RG780 filter, the colour differences in the background printing were markedly reduced and a more uniform background was obtained, against which the mark was clearly visible in its entirety (see Figure 7). It was concluded that the technique was applicable to marks developed by VMD.

Polystyrene tile treated with Small Particle Reagent (SPR) Small Particle Reagent differs slightly from marks developed using the processes above in that the main constituent, MoSi2, is not wholly metallic in character. However, it was thought that the silicide may behave in a manner similar to a metal particle when imaged using IR wavelengths, and so a polystyrene tile treated with SPR was imaged both with and without an IR filter in place. The results indicated that the writing on some of the labels faded when imaged using IR filters, and the SPR mark became slightly fainter but was still visible. It was therefore considered that the technique could be used for SPR marks developed on patterned backgrounds, although the contrast may not be as good as for VMD and PD marks. Preliminary tests have also indicated that marks developed using aluminium and black magnetic flake powders also remain visible when viewed through IR filters, as do marks developed using black iron oxide-based ‘Sticky side powder’.

CONCLUSIONS The use of IR filters to suppress coloured backgrounds does provide a valuable tool in revealing ridge detail that may otherwise be obscured by patterned backgrounds, and should be considered as an additional tool in the detection of marks on chemically treated items. The technique has been found to give good results for a wide range of colours and exhibit types, and suppresses background patterns on a significant number of important substrates such as cheque and banknotes. However, the technique does not work on all coloured backgrounds because the pigments used in different inks and printing techniques vary greatly, with the consequence that not all inks will be transparent at near-IR wavelengths. It may be necessary to change the focusing position and to perform some minor re-scaling of the image to compensate for the change in imaging wavelength from the visible region to near IR. This will be most pronounced for filters with the highest cut-on wavelengths, such as RG1000. The best overall results have been obtained from filters in the middle of the range available, i.e. RG780 and RG715. The technique is currently limited to processes that result in metallic deposits on the fingerprint ridges, and these are typically less often used techniques including Physical Developer, Vacuum Metal Deposition and Small Particle Reagent. If the technique is to become more widely used, a means of preferentially treating ninhydrin and/or superglue marks with metallic particles needs to be investigated.

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 235 page 236 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 237 REFERENCES B E Dalrymple, J Forens Sci 28(3) 1983, 692-695 T W Sinor, J P Wilde, K E Everse, E R Menzel, J Forens Sci. 31(3) 1986, 825-839 R A Merrill, E G Bartich, J Forens Sci. 37(2) 1992 , 528-541 A Chaikovsky, S Brown, A Balman, A Barzovski, J Forens Sci. 48(6) 2003, 1396-1405 R D Wilkinson ‘The Use of Infrared Microscopy in Detecting Latent Fingerprints’, in Proc. Of 64th Annual Educational Conference, International Association for Identification, Pheonix, Arizona, August 1979. D L Exline, C Wallace, C Roux, C Lennard, M P Nelson, P J Treado, J Forensic Sci. 48(5) 2003, 1047- 1053 ‘Manual of Fingerprint Development Techniques, Second Edition’, T Kent ed., PSDB 1998 (revised 2001)

page 238 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 Proflavin-Based Fingerprint Dusting Composition by G.S. Sodhi1 and Jasjeet Kaur2 1 Reader, Department of Chemistry, S.G.T.B. Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi- 110007, India 2 Head, Department of Chemistry, Shaheed Rajguru College of Applied Sciences for Women (University of Delhi) Jhilmil Colony, Vivek Vihar, Delhi-110095, India

Proflavin is an anti-septic agent, which is used to treat infected wounds and burns. We have prepared a fingerprint dusting composition containing 1% proflavin, the remaining being an adhesive mixture of boric acid, talc and barium carbonate. The powder gives sharp and clear prints on a wide range of absorbent and non-absorbent surface. The fluorescent nature of proflavin assists in developing weak prints. The formulation has been used to detect latent fingerprints on multicoloured surfaces, especially paper. Weak imprints may be detected under short wavelength ultraviolet radiation. It also detects latent prints on non-absorbent surfaces. Good quality prints have been lifted from lamination sheets. Thus the present method may be extended for obtaining fingerprints on laminated documents, such as archeological scripts, certificates, driving licenses and identity cards. Fingermarks have been visualized on obverse and waxed, reverse sides of postal stamps. Prints may also be developed on polythene bags- commonly used for carrying household items. Normally, the neutron activation analysis technique has to be called into action for polythene surfaces. Other surfaces on which an unscrupulous element is likely to leave his fingerprint impressions include glassware; steel handles, knobs and almirahs; bakelite switches and switchboards; bonechina and porcelain crockery; polished furniture; and enameled utilities like cars, washing machines and refrigerators. The present formulation gives good results on all these surfaces.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT One of us (G.S.S.) is grateful to the Department of Science and Technology, New Delhi, for sanctioning a Research Project of which the present work is a part.

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 239 CONFERENCE

THE 31st Annual Educational Conference FINGERPRINT SOCIETY 17-19 March 2006 Scottish Police College, Tulliallan Castle, Scotland

DELEGATE REGISTRATION FORM

Name: ...... Member/Fellow Force: ......

Address: ......

......

Post/Zip Code: ......

Telephone Number: ......

E-mail: ......

Vehicle Registration Number: ......

Accommodation Required: Single/Twin Room

Any Special Dietary Requirements: ......

Conference Fee per Delegate is £150.00 Cheques should be made payable to ‘The Fingerprint Society’

Completed Application Forms and Fee should be returned to: ‘Fingerprint Society Conference Team’ Scottish Fingerprint Service 1 Pacific Quay Glasgow G51 1DZ SCOTLAND

Conference Enquiries: Tel. 0141 585 8412

Closing Date for Applications and Payment – 1 March 2006

page 240 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 31st Annual Educational Conference 17-19 March 2006 Scottish Police College, Tulliallan Castle, Scotland

The Society’s 2006 Conference is being hosted by Society Members from the Scottish Fingerprint Service. This will be the third such occasion in the Society’s history in which members will have had the opportunity to sample traditional Scottish hospitality at Fingerprint Society Lectures.

Scottish members look forward to welcoming you to our Conference which is to be held in a particularly beautiful setting within very fine accommodation in the Scottish Police College, nestling within the beautifully tended parkland setting of Tulliallan Castle just north of the river Forth at Kincardine.

The Conference Programme will include a wide range of Criminal Justice, Forensic and Fingerprint related topics including the Role of the Procurator Fiscal,….. Forensic Entomology,……the UK Largest Murder Enquiry,….. Levels of Ridge Detail,….. Fingerprint Specific Case History,….. Forensic Archaeology,…. Advances in Fingerprint Technology,…. the Asian Tsunami,…. a Crime Writer….. and a Defence Solicitor etc. The quality of the speakers presenting at the Conference and drawn from across Scotland, Northern Ireland, England, Wales and the United States promises to make this event both memorable and informative. Don’t miss out ………start planning now for 17-19 March 2006 when the Fingerprint Society will give you a warm welcome to Scotland!

The Conference with Registration and Buffet Lunch at 12.30pm on Friday 17 March starts with the Society AGM and runs through to Buffet Lunch at 12 noon on Sunday 19 March. The Traditional Conference Gala Dinner is on the Friday evening and some special Scottish entertainment is promised for the Saturday evening.

Delegate Reservations are now being taken. Complete your Registration Form (attached) now and avoid disappointment later.

Fingerprint Society Conference Team

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 241 CONFERENCE REPORT

National Symposium on Emerging Areas of Forensic Science by G.S. Sodhi*, Gurmeet Kaur**, Gurvinder Kaur** and P.S. Jassal** * Organising Secretary; ** Conveners Department of Chemistry, S.G.T.B. Khalsa College, Delhi University, Delhi-110007, India

The national symposium on emerging areas of forensic science was held from December 4- 6, 2004 at S.G.T.B. Khalsa College, one of the premier institutions of higher learning, affiliated to the University of Delhi. College & university teachers, scientists and students participated in the program.

HIGHLIGHTS The event was sponsored by the following agencies. 1. Directorate of Forensic Science 2. University Grants Commission 3. Department of Science and Technology 4. Council of Scientific and Industrial Research 5. Indian National Science Academy

Keeping in view the national character of the program, resource persons from across the country were invited to apprise the participants of the latest developments in the field of forensic science. The delegates too represented various regions of the country. The proceedings of the symposium, including the abstracts of plenary lectures, panel discussions and workshops, were distributed to all the participants. The program was inaugurated by Dr. M.S. Rao, Director and Chief Forensic Scientist, Directorate of Forensic Science, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, while Dr. Kiran Datar, Dean, University of Delhi, presided over the valedictory function.

RELEVANCE The Universal Declaration of Human Rights directs the member nations to create such conditions under which the ideals of free human beings, enjoying civil and political freedom from fear and want, can be achieved. The Constitution of India, through its various articles, strives to ensure security and safety of citizens in accordance with the principles of Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, crime is a violation of these principles. In a country like India, where majority of population is uneducated, social set up is heterogeneous, public- police relations are not very cordial, poverty is rampant and unemployment widespread, it is not surprising that crime rate is increasing exponentially. If we have to create conditions conducive to harmonious development, we must mitigate the crime rate. This can best be achieved by relying on the support of forensic science system. Unfortunately, in our country, forensic science is not viewed as a core investigative skill in

page 242 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 crime detection. In fact, there is a lack of understanding of the forensic process itself. It is for this reason that less than 10% of the police cases are, at present, being referred for forensic examination. Less than 5% are solved by the application of forensic science. The rest are solved by third degree method – a practice which the human rights organisations will not allow in days to come. In majority of serious crime cases, hi-tech measures are being adopted by perpetrators of crime. The counter measures have to be more sophisticated to surpass them. This calls for strengthening the foundations of forensic science at national level.

OBJECTIVES 1. Based on the current scenario in the country, the symposium deemed – 2. To emphasize the importance of scientific methods in crime detection. 3. To highlight the latest developments in forensic science. 4. To create forensic awareness amongst the participants. 5. To review the steps necessary for achieving highest excellence in forensic science. 6. To examine how universities can ensure that talented human resource, commensurating with latest requirements of forensic science, can be generated.

TECHNICAL PROGRAM The symposium comprised of plenary lectures, panel discussions and workshops.

Plenary lectures. Fourteen plenary lectures, dealing with various aspects of forensic science were held during the event. A wide array of forensic fields, from post-mortem examination and footprints to brain fingerprinting and invisible clues in crime detection, were covered in the symposium. It was advocated that detection of latent fingerprints was one of the most powerful tools in casework investigations. The detection may be carried out by physical and/or chemical methods. The relevance of various theories of crime was thoroughly examined, and so were the steps being taken by the Directorate of Forensic Science to combat crime. The importance of keeping travel document (passports and visas) forgery-proof and updated was emphasized. The role of forensic documents in pre-crime and post-crime scenarios was discussed. These documents not only figure in white-collar and economic offences, but also in cases of murder, suicides, fake degrees and kidnappings. The significance of voice analysis and tape-recorded evidence were also highlighted. The unfortunate happenings of December 13, 2001, when the Parliament of India was attacked by terrorists, clearly show that sometimes a little carelessness translates into a major tragedy. The Home Ministry parking stickers and passes were downloaded from internet to gain entry into the Parliament House. In the section of cyber crimes, it was discussed how a computer can be used as an instrument to commit heinous crimes. Forensic science is concerned with law. And the ultimate aim of law is not to punish but to reform. The lecture on jail reforms highlighted the steps being taken to rehabilitate the inmates, so that they too join the mainstream after their release from prison.

Panel discussions. Two panel discussions were held during the symposium. The first was related to the introduction of forensic science courses in the universities. It was felt that forensic science is an applied and multidisciplinary subject, which can be taken as a

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 243 challenging career. It is the need of the hour to introduce these courses, at graduate and postgraduate levels, so that human resources could be generated for the investigation of crimes and the criminals in a more scientific manner. Already some of the universities and private institutes are running these courses. There are ample job opportunities for students pursuing forensic science, since crimes are happening at an escalating rate in modern times and trained human resources are required to carry out investigations using advanced scientific techniques. The second panel discussion was on terrorism versus human rights. It was felt that freedom, justice and peace in the world are based on the recognition of the inherent dignity and of equal & inalienable rights of all human beings. In the interest of the society, it is necessary to bring the terrorists back into the mainstream. Even if the terrorists are to be tried in ‘special’ courts, human rights ought to be protected under all circumstances. It must be ensured that human beings, all over the world, live in peace and harmony with each other.

Workshops. Two workshops were organized during the symposium. The first was on the demonstration of lie detection technique. Demonstration of polygraph – the lie detection technique – was conducted on a volunteer subject to show the efficiency of the method. For this purpose, a questionnaire comprising relevant, irrelevant and control questions was prepared. To administer the questionnaire, different sensors of the polygraph were attached to the subject to record his physiological response, that is, respiration rate, blood pressure, pulse rate and electro dermal response (GSR) during the examination. Polygrams (recorded charts) were interpreted and significant physiological changes, recorded on the graphs in respect to the relevant questions, were identified. The second workshop was on the demonstration of voice analysis technique. The spectrographic method of speaker recognition, in which the speech signal is converted into a visual display, was used in the demonstration. The spectrograms or the visual representations of the speech signals conveyed information about the message spoken by the speaker. Clue words were selected from the questioned and control samples and subjected to voice analysis. The spectrographic patterns were compared to identify the similarities or differences between the questioned and control voice samples.

OUTCOME The symposium contributed to the advancement of knowledge in a number of ways. 1. The participants were enlightened on the latest developments in the field of forensic science. 2. The participants were given ample opportunities to interact with resource persons. 3. The crime scenario in the country was discussed and steps necessary to combat the unscrupulous activities were highlighted. 4. Forensic awareness was created amongst the participants by highlighting the importance of scientific methods in solving crime. 5. Employment opportunities in the field of forensic science were analyzed. 6. The problems faced by students pursuing forensic science courses were discussed and steps necessary to overcome these were debated.

RECOMMENDATIONS The following are the recommendations of the symposium. 1. The forensic infrastructure of the country should be further strengthened.

page 244 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 2. A scientific approach towards crime solving should be followed. 3. More forensic awareness should be created amongst the people. 4. The students who have a bent of mind towards forensic science should be tapped as a human resource. 5. Educational institute should be encouraged to initiate courses in forensic science. 6. The Directorate of Forensic Science should guide the universities in developing curriculum of forensic science courses keeping in view the national interest.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Financial assistance from various agencies and sponsors is gratefully acknowledged. The organising Committee of the symposium is grateful to Dr. M.S. Rao, Director and Chief Forensic Scientist, Directorate of Forensic Science, Ministry of Home Affairs for his keen interest and consistent guidance throughout the program. Gratitude to Dr. B.S. Rattan and Dr. S.C. Sharma, Principal and Vice-principal, respectively, S.G.T.B. Khalsa College, Delhi University for their kind cooperation during the program. Thanks are due to the teaching and non-teaching staff of S.G.T.B. Khalsa College for making the event a success. A special word of thanks for the student volunteers who worked heart and soul to make the program a memorable one.

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 245 NEWS

Cons cheat prison’s new door system Security bungle at £24m cell block

Exclusive By Amy Devine

INMATES were given the run of a tough jail after a new multi-million-pound security system failed. Cons were able to pass through a state-of-the-art locking device for up to a month before jail staff noticed the blunder. The glitch was only discovered when a prisoner showed staff he could open the hi-tech doors at Glenochil’s new Harvieston Hall. The £24million cell block was earmarked as a detention centre for G8 troublemakers if violence flared at the summit in July. The new lock-up system replaced traditional keys with fingerprint-activated doors. The foolproof system should only open gates when a secret code is put in, along with the fingerprint of a warden. But prisoners discovered putting any four-digit number into the panel and any finger on the magic eye camera unlocked the doors. And they were able to roam around freely for a month. Glenochil, in Clackmannanshire, is home to some of Scotland’s toughest criminals, including murderers. A prison insider said: “Millions of pounds have been spent on building the new Harvieston Hall and then getting this brand new system put in. “Although the prisoners couldn’t get out the establishment, they could leave their halls andmix with others”There are four flats in the new hall, each holding up to 120 people with all sorts of convictions. “It is very embarrassing.We actually laughed about using fingerprints in training, when they told us, ‘Not to worry,prisoners won’t try to cut off your finger. It must have a pulse to activate it’. “But it turns out they could walk right through on their own anyway.” The fault has not yet been fixed and all doors have to be opened from a control centre. ❖❖❖❖❖ Fingerprints free man from jail

A man jailed for drug dealing has had his conviction quashed after an appeal judge heard about police “incompetence” over fingerprint evidence in the case. David Beynon, 39, from Blaina in Blaenau Gwent, was jailed in March for six years for possession of heroin with intent to supply. But the conviction was quashed at the Court of Appeal in London after fingerprint evidence. The evidence had not been available at the time of his trial. Lord Justice Laws freed Mr Beynon after hearing that fingerprint evidence undermined

page 246 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 the safety of the conviction because it could not link him to packets of heroin that had been thrown from a window of a flat which had been raided by police.

Evidence “This man has been convicted on a wrong basis because of incompetence on the part of the Crown,” said the judge. “And by the Crown I include the police. Persons representing the prosecution have acted incompetently.” The judge described the sequence of events as a “lamentable tale”, and said that Mr Beynon’s trial should have been adjourned because fingerprint evidence was still being obtained at the time of the case. He added the Crown had wrongly been told by Gwent Police that there was no fingerprint evidence whatsoever. He said there had been a “chapter of accidents” and those involved should feel “shame”. The court heard how Mr Beynon was arrested following a raid on a flat on 13 August 2004.

No match Four men were present – including Mr Beynon – and a quantity of drugs were recovered. Mr Beynon was seen to have tipped a bag containing cannabis on to the living room floor, and he confessed to possessing that drug. Mr Beynon, who was found with £478 cash, was accused of being the man who threw packets of heroin from a window. At the time of his trial, fingerprint analysis was still being carried out on the packets. But it was later confirmed that although 17 prints were obtained, there was no match to Mr Beynon. As no separate penalty was imposed for the possession of cannabis charge, Mr Beynon, already on bail, was freed after the hearing. ❖❖❖❖❖

I am saddened to inform you of the passing of Terry Major, Head of Grampian Fingerprint Bureau, and member of the Fingerprint Society for many years. Terry started at the Met in 1966 before coming up to Aberdeen in the early 1970’s. He was diagnosed with Lung Cancer, caused by asbestos, in September 2003, and bore his illness with incredible bravery and dignity. Many people will have come into contact with Terry and I ask you can pass this message on to those who may have worked or known Terry. ❖❖❖❖❖

Inmate can fight trial’s lip-print evidence ID led to conviction in ‘93 Elgin slaying

By Flynn McRoberts, Tribune staff reporter

A man convicted of murder with the help of controversial lip-print evidence will get a chance to argue that flawed forensic testimony sent him to prison, a Kane County circuit judge ruled Wednesday.

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 247 Lavelle Davis was sentenced to 45 years for a 1993 murder in Elgin after investigators said they linked him to the crime through a lip print lifted off a piece of duct tape found near the scene. At Davis’s 1997 trial, a state expert testified that the FBI considered lip-print evidence to be a positive form of identification, and some jurors told the Tribune in interviews last fall that the lip print proved Davis had committed the crime. But Davis’ attorneys have since obtained an affidavit from the FBI stating that the bureau has never proved the validity of lip-print comparisons and stopped using the method entirely three years ago. After listening to oral arguments Wednesday, Circuit Judge Timothy Sheldon reversed a ruling he made last month and agreed to consider whether Davis’ trial attorney was ineffective because he failed to bring in experts to challenge the use of lip prints. The lip print was the only piece of physical evidence the state had to link Davis to the crime scene. Some jurors said the lip print was much more convincing than the witnesses and others called by both sides. “I mean, it was a big breakthrough for determining his guilt,” juror Doris Gonzalez said. Davis appealed, but in 1999 the Illinois Appellate Court affirmed his conviction, writing that the state experts at his trial had testified that the FBI considered lip prints a “means of positive identification,” and they “did not know of any dissent inside the forensic science community.” After losing the appeal, Davis filed a post-conviction petition, armed with new information about lip-print evidence. Sheldon agreed Wednesday to hold a new hearing, scheduled for Oct. 12. Davis’ new attorneys plan to call a renowned fingerprint expert and others who contend that such comparisons—used in just a few cases in American courts—are not accepted by the forensic science community. His attorneys hope to win Davis a new trial. “There was no basis for saying lip-print evidence was reliable, and it would have changed the outcome of the trial” had Davis’ original lawyer brought in experts to challenge the state’s assertions, said David Koropp, an attorney with Winston & Strawn, which took the case for free after it was featured last fall in a Tribune series, “Forensics Under the Microscope.” The state had argued that Davis should not be able to raise questions about the lip-print evidence because he could have done so during his initial appeal. But the judge agreed “that live testimony is more compelling” and he would hear the defense experts at the evidentiary hearing in October, said Mary Beth Burns of the State’s Attorneys Appellate Prosecutor office. Sheldon took over the case after Davis’ trial judge, James T. Doyle, was reassigned earlier this year pending an investigation by the Judicial Inquiry Board into unrelated cases. Doyle allegedly violated the constitutional rights of defendants who appeared before the drug rehabilitation court over which he presided. ❖❖❖❖❖

page 248 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 Jack Slipper, Who Probed U.K. Train Robbery, Dies

Aug. 24 (Bloomberg)

Jack Slipper, the U.K. detective who played a “pivotal’’ role in the probe into the 1963 Great Train Robbery, has died aged 81, British police said. Slipper died early today after a long-term illness, police said in an e-mailed statement. The “Great Train Robbery” in 1963 became one of the U.K.’s most notorious crimes. The gang got away with 2.6 million pounds ($3.7 million), worth about 50 million pounds today. All the robbers were captured after leaving their fingerprints in an isolated farmhouse where they shared out the loot. One of them, Ronnie Biggs, escaped from prison, and was tracked down by Slipper in Rio De Janeiro in 1974. “Slipper was one of the finest detectives in the last century,’’ Mike McAdam, a former detective chief inspector of the “Flying Squad,’’ which investigates armed robberies, said in the statement. “New Scotland Yard has a world-wide reputation and the name Jack Slipper or ‘Slipper of The Yard’, as he is known, is synonymous with The Yard.’’ Biggs escaped from prison in 1965 after serving 15 months of a 30-year sentence. He fled to France where he underwent plastic surgery and spent some time in Australia before fleeing to Brazil, via Panama. Slipper tracked him down after he had been in Rio for four years. By that time, Biggs’s girlfriend Raimunda was pregnant, and he escaped extradition because Brazilian law protects the father of a Brazilian child from extradition.

Police Murders Slipper in 1997 said he couldn’t see “any point’’ in bringing Biggs back from Brazil, because the offense had been committed so long ago. The escaped convict was finally returned to the U.K. on May 7, 2001, and remains a prisoner in London. While Slipper is best remembered for his role in the Great Train Robbery investigation, it wasn’t the case that gave him the most satisfaction, according to the police. He was proudest of his role in tracking down the killers of three unarmed police officers in the capital’s Shepherd’s Bush district in 1966. “I had a lot of contacts in west London and these were invaluable in tracing the killers,’’ Slipper told “The Job,’’ the Metropolitan Police’s official newspaper, last year. “At the time the murders shocked the nation as crimes against police officers were rare. One of the Shepherd’s Bush killers is still in prison 38 years after the offence.’’ Slipper was also involved in probing other high-profile cases, including the theft of 12 million pounds from the Bank of America in the early 1970s, and the first so-called “supergrass trials,’’ in which informers were used as witnesses.

‘Tenacious Investigator’ The Flying Squad was originally known as the “Mobile Patrol Experiment’’ when it was set up in 1919, and its nickname came about in 1921. Slipper was its operational chief when it was officially known as the robbery squad, and established the current flying squad model for investigations of robberies, according to today’s statement. “Through the illustrious history of the flying squad, Jack Slipper is a name that sits above all others as a tenacious investigator and well-respected head of the flying squad,’’ Detective

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 249 Chief Superintendent Barry Phillips said. “His detective ability, professionalism, commitment and dedication is something that all detectives should aspire to.’’ Slipper worked as an electrician’s apprentice until 1941, when he joined the Royal Air Force. He served as an electrician with a night fighter squadron in Kent, southeast England, before being posted to Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, in August 1943, where he served until 1946. The 6 feet, 3 inch-tall (1.9-meter) detective in 1981 published “Slipper of The Yard,’’ a book about his experiences in the capital’s police force. He leaves behind his wife of 57 years, Annie Slipper, two daughters and five grandchildren. To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at [email protected] Last Updated: August 24, 2005 11:58 EDT ❖❖❖❖❖

National award for police boss’s idea

A Lancashire Police Inspector has won a national award for developing a scheme, which has saved officers in Lancashire up to 3,000 operational hours over the past year. Home Secretary Charles Clark presented Insp. John Clucas with second prize in the Home Office and Police Federation Award for reducing bureaucracy at a ceremony held at the Police Federation National Conference, in Blackpool. Insp. Clucas developed an innovative scheme to allow police officers to take a single digit fingerprint in the street to confirm identity. The system could also be used when dealing with certain offences such as those where penalty notices for disorder and motoring fixed penalty tickets have been issued. All operational officers in Lancashire have now been issued with miniature inkpads and have the option of taking a single digit fingerprint on Lancashire’s streets. Insp. Clucas said: “This scheme has been running in Lancashire for almost a year. It has a number of benefits for officers when dealing with people on the streets who might otherwise have to be arrested and taken back to the police station to have their identity confirmed. “Some people give false names or allege at a later date that someone else gave their details and this scheme ensures that their true identity can be obtained. “It reduces arrests and allows a police officer to remain on patrol in the community for longer without being engaged in the police station sorting out paperwork. “I was very proud to have received the award, particularly now our scheme had been adopted by a number of other forces. As with most things it is the simple things that can often be most effective.” Insp. Clucas was presented with a framed certificate and was allowed to donate a cheque for £500 to a good cause. He chose a Ribble Valley Junior Football Club which is improving its facilities for boys’ and girls’ football. Insp. Clucas, centre, receives his award from the chairman of the Police Federation, Jan Berry, and Home Secretary Charles Clark. ❖❖❖❖❖

page 250 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 Police forensic super unit opens

A £4.2m forensic unit to help South Wales Police investigate current cases, as well as re- examining unsolved ones, has been officially opened. The unit is equipped with some of the most cutting edge technology in the field of DNA technology, finger printing and facial identification. It also includes forensic services such as Scenes of Crime and the Police National Computer bureau. The Scientific Support Unit is the first of its kind in Wales. The unit, which was operational for two months before its official opening on Friday, sees specialist departments working together to deliver forensic technology. The force has said it has already seen an increase in the number of criminals caught since it opened. Based at the south Wales force’s headquarters at Bridgend, it includes the fingerprint bureau, the photographic and video imaging unit, facial identification, the DNA Bureau and the fingerprint development unit. Chief Constable Barbara Wilding said: “South Wales Police has been at the forefront of scientific development throughout its history. “In recent years we have been particularly successful in utilizing DNA to detect some very serious crimes from the past, including murders and rapes, that had long been thought undetectable. “I feel positive that the development of this facility will enable us to put the pieces to unsolved mysteries together much more efficiently than was ever possible previously. “They may also prove particularly effective when used within more historical cases such as the re-investigation into the murder of Swansea sex shop manager Sandra Phillips,” she added. Superintendent Simon Clarke, the lead officer for the Sandra Phillips re-investigation said: “This brand new, state-of-the-art facility will provide the focus and capability for the force to develop all the forensic opportunities available, to help resolve both historical cases, and those that are more recent. “We are already seeing significant improvements in the numbers of criminals being brought to justice because of this facility. “In the two short months that this building has been working operationally, 25 more criminals have been detected from fingerprints, in comparison to April of last year, and 21 more in May than the same period last year, which is extremely encouraging. “Similarly, we have seen a 37% increase in DNA matches over the same period as a direct result of this new building. “More criminals are therefore clearly being brought to justice, which I hope in turn will deter others from leading a life of crime, and in the long term – fewer victims.” Secretary of State for Wales, Peter Hain, officially opened the unit on Friday. ❖❖❖❖❖

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 251 Thai tsunami resorts await tourists By Kate McGeown, BBC News

Chanida Chueratanakorn owns a beach-front restaurant in the beautiful Thai resort of Au Nang. Like many places on this stretch of the Andaman coastline, Au Nang – near the town of Krabi – was only slightly damaged by the tsunami. But six months after the disaster, few tourists are coming, and Ms Chueratanakorn is finding it hard to make ends meet. “We’ve considered closing, and maybe that might be the best option,” she said. “But if tourists come and see The tourist low season is proving everything shut up like a ghost town they’ll never come difficult back.” “It’s a really difficult time for us. Usually we save enough money in the high season to carry us through the low season. “But the tsunami happened at the beginning of the high season, so now we don’t have any money to last us through this quieter period,” she said. Sophia Buranakul, project manager for a local non-profit foundation, said Ms Chueratanakorn’s situation was a common one. “There’s a huge amount of emotional tension among the people here, most of whom are dependent on the tourist industry,” she said.

Pristine beaches It is a similar story further up the coast, on the island of Phuket. Most of the island survived the tsunami unscathed, and even the areas which were affected, such as Patong Beach, were cleared up soon afterwards. According to Abigail Silver, UK publicity manager for the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), “Anyone going there for the first time would not notice anything had happened.” But even now, in the low season, the tourist numbers are still noticeably down from this time last year. “Tourists are gradually coming back, but it’s still not normal,” acknowledged TAT’s international PR director Tanes Tetsuwan. “But people are feeling more optimistic about the next high season, and they’re already getting bookings,” he said. While tour agencies are hoping Westerners will return in October and November – the start of the peak season – the Thai government is currently focusing its attention on the Asian markets, encouraging low season visitors from Japan and China. Rebuilding homes will take time

page 252 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 According to Mr Tetsuwan, the government is also trying to help small and medium-sized businesses by providing loans. But Sophia Buranakul said that most of the small business-owners she knew in and around Krabi had yet to receive any state help. The inhabitants of the tsunami-hit island of Phi Phi are also still waiting – for the authorities to decide whether they can move back to their island. “Everyone’s a bit frustrated, because not much has happened yet,” said Jantharawan Yimyaen, one of the islanders concerned. “Some people are saying that those who died during the tsunami were lucky, because they don’t have to think about what to do with the rest of their lives,” she said. The authorities have yet to determine a long-term plan of action for tourism on Phi Phi, leaving islanders – most of whom made their money from holidaymakers – in limbo as to what to do next. Some, though, have decided not to wait. The trickle of tourists arriving on the island will now find more than 100 shops and cafes open for business, anxious to earn much-needed revenue.

Hope for next season In one of the worst affected areas of Thailand, the resort of Khao Lak, the restoration effort is far from finished. Even here, though, shops and restaurants have already reopened, catering to the small number of tourists and larger number of volunteers in the area. In fact many operators are confident tourist numbers will rise substantially as the high season approaches. The luxury five-star Sarojin Hotel will be one of the first to open its doors – on 1 September. “We’re already getting bookings, and in December we’ve even got a honeymoon couple coming here,” said owner Kate Kemp. “As well as traditional tourists, we’re getting interest from volunteers and people who have read about the area and want to help its regeneration.” But the people of Khao Lak still have a long way to go before their lives return to normal. Many still live in temporary camps, as building work for more permanent homes continues. Survivors also remain shocked and scarred by their experiences. “I’ve met people who lost everything – their whole family and all their possessions. It’s still too soon to come to terms with something like that,” said Tirian Mink, from the Tsunami Volunteer Centre, which is co-ordinating much of the area’s relief effort. While the physical scars of December’s disaster are fast disappearing, the emotional ones will take a lot longer to heal.

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 253 page 254 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 WEBLINKS

THE WISCONSIN IAI WEB SITE http://www.thewai.org/

THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR IDENTIFICATION http://www.theiai.org/

THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF FINGERPRINT OFFICERS SITE http://www.scafo.org/

ED GERMAN’S SITE http://onin.com/fp/

DAVE CHARLTON’S SITE (A RIDGE TOO FAR) http://www.david.charlton97.btinternet.co.uk/

KASEY WERTHEIM’S SITE http://www.clpex.com/

THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN DIVISION OF IAI SITE http://www.rmdiai.org/

If you would like your website included then please let me know. Ed.

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 255 FINGERPRINT SOCIETY MERCHANDISING

“Flip up” calculator £5.50

“Stress” Globe £3.40

Umbrella £8.50 Mug with gold logo £5.00 Polo Shirt – Blue Med £10.50 XL £11.00 XXL £12.50

“V” neck Ladies T-shirt – Navy Badge £1.50 Pen £2.50 Boxed £2.80 £11.00

page 256 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 WEB SITE NEWS

An Urgent Update!

The Fingerprint Society Web Site is now active and can be viewed at the following address: http://www.fpsociety.org.uk/

The Society web site is yours to use and includes archive journals, merchandising information, as well as membership application forms. The web site will be the ONLY place to get membership forms in future, they will NOT be found in the journal from April 2005. So spread the word!!

Due to the huge demand for a weekly newsletter the site also includes a link to a Yahoo group forum moderated by your editor from his web site ‘A Ridge Too Far’.

http://www.david.charlton97.btinternet.co.uk/

There will be a weekly communication that will include job adverts, news and views from around the country as well as international issues. There will be conference updates too!! So sign up NOW!

Extra benefits will be the ability to share files and photographs if required and I hope you agree with your committee that this is a good direction in which to go. It also means that ALL members can keep in touch with one another via the group, and to exchange ideas and information more readily via a moderated e-mail environment.

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 257 SOCIETY BUSINESS

A Brief History of the Fingerprint Society 1974 – 1989

Written by John Berry B.E.M., F.F.S; Stephen Haylock F.F.S; Martin Leadbetter, F.F.S.

In the Hertfordshire Fingerprint Bureau in 1974 there were two fingerprint experts, D.R. Brooker and M.J. Leadbetter, and two fingerprint officers, N.J. Hall and S.E. Haylock. During their coffee breaks they discussed the position of the fingerprint man in a regional bureau. They discovered that they did not know of any fingerprint personnel in surrounding bureaux, except perhaps for a formal conversation … in fact, it was quite an insular existence. They also felt that even though there was a National Fingerprint Conference every year, information from it seemed to take a long time to percolate through to them. The Herts men considered that if they personally knew staff in other bureaux, not as mere anonymous voices on the telephone, they could request copies of finger impressions and ensure swift delivery, or confer on important fingerprint matters. It was during these discussions that the idea was formulated to organise a society to publish a journal, to mention personalities and to circulate the latest information on new techniques. The Herts men sent a circular to all British bureaux, suggesting the formation of the NATIONAL SOCIETY OF FINGERPRINT OFFICERS (NSFO). They were delighted with the response and organised a meeting in Manchester, at which a large number of fingerprint officers attended to discuss the project. Steve Haylock and Martin Leadbetter also visited New Scotland Yard to seek advice from senior police officers in the bureau. One man emerged to provide the Herts men with excellent advice and guidance, Detective Superintendent Lewis Minshall. He was in charge of the Essex bureau; although he was the administrator he was also a working fingerprint expert. He told the Herts men that in order for the proposed society to be a success, it was imperative that police officers should join. (In 1974, many fingerprint experts were police officers, though by 1989 very few remained. Possibly 95 per cent of fingerprint experts are now civilians). He explained that police officers would only join if there was no reference to trade union activities, which had been suggested at the Manchester meeting. Mr Minshall held further discussions with the Herts men and with his strong support, the NATIONAL SOCIETY OF FINGERPRINT OFFICERS became a reality in 1975. John Berry retired from the police service at the end of March 1975 and immediately joined the Hertfordshire bureau as a fingerprint expert. Just at the time the society was preparing the publication of a journal and required an editor. Berry did inform that in previous years he had edited a science fiction magazine and also a police judo club journal. He was asked if he would become the editor; he accepted and produced the title FINGERPRINT WHORLD. The first issue was published in July 1975 and although it didn’t have too many pages, it was nicely printed and membership grew steadily. However, we were aware that in a number of police forces the Chief Constables would not permit their police experts to join because they were still suspicious of the motives of the Society, which of course were entirely innocent, being only concerned with the maintenance of the infallibility of fingerprint evidence and the furtherance of knowledge. Mr. Minshall wrote THE AIMS OF THE SOCIETY… “To advance the study and

page 258 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 application of fingerprint evidence and to facilitate the co-operation among persons interested in this field of personal identification”. During 1976 and 1977 the British Membership increased considerably and gradually police officers did join, although in some forces there were still inhibiting factors. To the amazement of the Herts men now known as the “Four Founder”, enquiries as to how to join the Society were received from fingerprint technicians in the United States, the Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the West Indies etc. To cover this newly-found but entirely unsolicited international response, at an Annual General Meeting it was decided to change the name to THE FINGERPRINT SOCIETY. Annual Conferences were organised in England and Scotland and there was always a minimum of fifty delegates, some from overseas, and exhibition stands were prepared so that vendors of fingerprint equipment could show and sell their wares. Lectures on fingerprint and associated science became very important items on the Conference programmes and the social aspect was even more significant. Experts from different countries could now converse and discuss their problems and gloat over their identifications. In 1983 The Fingerprint Society held its Annual Conference in Washington DC. The Society had several members of the US Secret Service, and one of them, Samuel Durrett FFS, organised the Conference. Several delegates travelled from Great Britain to attend. During the Conference, British delegates were interviewed by the media and John Simpson, Head of the US Secret Service, who visited the Conference and addressed the delegates. Lewis Minshall died in 1980 and in his will bequeathed the sum of £50 per annum for the Lewis Minshall Award, to be made to the person or persons who had performed meritorious fingerprint service. The first awards were made in 1981… to William Russell-Turner, inventor of the widely used COMPARATOR… and to Robert Olsen FFS, now deceased, one of America’s outstanding fingerprint authorities. By 1989, nine Lewis Minshall Awards had been made, including three to the editorial staff of FINGERPRINT WHORLD. Mrs. Minshall also died some years ago but the Society had maintained the Award in his memory. Throughout the eighties, membership flourished both numerically and in a world-wide context… almost one thousand fingerprint personnel employed by the police or military joined the Society in that time and the journal was circulated to seventy countries. With this international membership the editorial policy has been to reveal new inventions and innovations to enable fingerprint experts in different countries to be aware of them.. we all have something to learn. The Society has encouraged fingerprint research in many directions and was also partly responsible for introducing Superglue usage into Britain, via Martin Leadbetter, who had seen it working efficiently in the United States. Many of the new techniques published in the journal’s SCIENTIFIC BUREAU column have assisted police all over the world to successfully investigate major crimes. Administratively, the Society had four Presidents in fifteen years – Detective Superintendent Lewis Minshall (Essex), Detective Superintendent G. Bragg (Essex), Mr F. Warboys (the first civilian to take charge of the New Scotland Yard Fingerprint Bureau) and Mr. K. Luff, also employed at the New Scotland Yard Bureau. Martin Leadbetter and Stephen Haylock were secretary and assistant secretary for most of the time. Martin also assisted editor Berry producing FINGERPRINT WHORLD and Stephen was also a very successful Advertising Manager. Nicolas Hall had been the Treasurer since the inception of the Society. David Brooker produced the Handbook and the Roll of Fellows and Members, so it can be seen that the ‘Four Founders’ remained active in Society matters. The Society administrators do not receive fees for their work. Committee Members are nominated annually and they and the administrators may receive payment for travel and subsistence when they attend meetings. The Fingerprint Society is non-racial, non-political, non-sectarian and welcomes membership from persons all over the world working in police or military agencies as fingerprint or scene of crime officers.

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 259 The Rules of the Fingerprint Society 1. Name The Society shall be known as THE FINGERPRINT SOCIETY 2. Objects 2.1 The objects of the Society are to advance the study and application of fingerprints and to facilitate co-operation among persons interested in this field of personal identification 2.2 The Society is not a Union or a Negotiating Body, but a group of professional people formed by their own mutual agreement 3. Qualification for Membership 3.1. Membership of the Society is open to persons having successfully completed an accredited initial fingerprint course and remaining in fingerprint work whilst employed in the Police or Government Service. However where a Full Member or Fellow is posted to other duties within the Police Service and no longer employed in fingerprint work, he/she will be allowed to retain membership of this Society 3.2 Members retiring from or leaving the Police Service may retain their membership of the Society on payment of the full annual subscription continuing their previously recognised status and retain full voting rights. 3.3 Other than in circumstances to be decided by the Executive Sub-Committee a person may not re-join the Society 4. Admission to Membership 4.1 A candidate for membership must:- 4.1.1 apply on the form recognised by the Society sign the application form and remit his/her joining fee and first subscription and 4.1.2 be proposed by a member who must vouch for the fitness of the candidate from his/her personal knowledge 4.1.3 Admission to membership is by approval of the Membership Secretary or at his/her discretion by approval of the Executive Sub-Committee 5. Procedure after approval 5.1 Immediately a candidate is approved for admission he/she must be: 5.1.1 given notice that he/she has been approved 5.1.2 furnished with a copy of these rules and 5.2 on clearance of the remittance for his/her joining fee and first subscription an approved candidate becomes a member of the Society and is entitled to all the benefits and privileges of membership and agrees to be bound by these rules. 6. Entrance fee and subscriptions 6.1 The joining fee is whatever sum the Committee determines from time to time. The joining fee is waived for a candidate under 21 years of age as at the date of approval of his/her membership 6.2 A person re-joining the Society must pay 100% of the joining fee in addition to the annual subscription. 6.3 The annual subscription is the sum decided upon from time to time at the Annual General Meeting of the Society making special provision for overseas Members and Fellows. 6.4 The annual subscription is payable in advance on 1st January each year (except the first subscription of a new member as provided by rule 5.2). 6.5 There will be no apportionment of subscription or joining fee for a member joining during the year and no refund if a member leaves during the year. 7. Subscriptions in arrears 7.1. If a member’s subscription is not paid within 3 months of its due date, the Executive Sub-Committee may terminate his/her membership.

page 260 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 7.2 If at any time the member gives the Executive Sub-Committee a satisfactory explanation, he/she may, at the discretion of the Executive Sub-Committee and on payment of arrears and 50% of the joining fee, be readmitted to membership. 8. Fellows 8.1 On achieving the accepted National Standard in his/her country of origin and becoming a recognised expert in that country’s Law Courts and proving the same to the satisfaction of the Executive Sub-Committee a Member shall become a Fellow and his/her name shall appear on a list drawn up by the Society. 8.2 Any Member or Fellow of the Society shall inform the Secretary of any change in his/her professional status, in order that the Society records may be updated. 8.3 Recognised Fellows of the Society may use the suffix FFS in their personal titles and Members may use the suffix MFS. The bearers of these titles may do so throughout the period of their membership of the Society. 8.4 The Society may issue a certificate to Members or Fellows indicating their status within the Society. 9. Honorary Members 9.1 Honorary Membership of the Society may be granted to persons giving or who have given valuable service to this Society but who are ineligible for ordinary membership. 9.2 Honorary Membership may only be conferred or withdrawn by an Annual General Meeting upon receiving and agreeing a nomination or report from the Committee and at every Annual General Meeting there must be a vote on whether existing Honorary Memberships are to be confirmed or withdrawn. 9.3 Honorary Members are entitled to the quarterly receipt of a complimentary copy of this Society’s journal and the opportunity to attend, at their own expense, this Society’s Annual Conference but to no other benefits. Without prejudice to the foregoing Honorary Members are not entitled to vote as members or to claim any share of the property of the Society on its dissolution. 9.4 The names of Honorary Members shall appear on a list drawn up by the Society and may appear in any Fingerprint Society publication. 9.5 Honorary Members may use the suffix Hon. MFS in their personal titles. 10. Associate Members 10.1 A person who is not eligible for membership of the Society and has never had full membership but who is interested in the objects of the Society may apply for Associate Membership. 10.2 A candidate for Associate Membership must apply on the form recognised by the Society and remit his/her joining fee and first subscription and rules 4.1.3 and 5 apply. 10.3 The Executive Sub-Committee may award Associate Membership free of charge to any person who is eligible to be an Associate Member. 10.4 The annual subscription for Associate Membership is equal to the subscription (from time to time) for full membership. 10.5 Associate Members are entitled to all the benefits and privileges of membership but may not be Officers or Members of the Committee and are not entitled to vote as members or to claim any share of the property of the Society on its dissolution. 10.6 Associate Members may not use a post nominal in their personal titles. 11. Resignation of members Any member may resign his/her membership by giving notice in writing to that effect to the Membership Secretary. 12. Members adjudged bankrupt etc If any member: 12.1 is convicted on indictment of any criminal offence, or 12.2 is adjudged a bankrupt, or

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 261 12.3 makes a composition or arrangement with his/her creditors under the provisions of any statute, or 12.4 has a trustee appointed for the benefit of his/her creditors, or 12.5 is no longer capable of looking after his/her affairs he/she immediately ceases to be a member of the Society, but the Executive Sub-Committee may, in its discretion, reinstate him/her without entrance fee. 13. Expulsion of Members 13.1 If at any time the Committee considers that the interests of the Society require it they must invite a member to resign from the Society, by a letter specifying the time before which the withdrawal should be made. 13.2 If the member concerned does not withdraw the Committee must submit the question of his/her expulsion to the Annual General Meeting or a Special General Meeting to be held within eight weeks after the date of the letter. 13.3 Not less than 14 days’ notice of the meeting must be given to the members. 13.4 The Secretary must inform the member in question of the time and place of the meeting and the nature of the complaints against him/her in sufficient time to afford him/her a proper opportunity of offering an explanation. 13.5 At the meeting the member must be allowed to offer an explanation of his/her conduct verbally or in writing and if after that more than half of the members present vote for his/her expulsion he/she will immediately cease to be a member of the Society. 13.6 The voting at any such Special General Meeting must be by ballot. 14. Effect of ceasing to be a member 14.1 On ceasing to be a member of the Society a person forfeits all right to and claim upon the Society and its property and funds. 15. Suspension 15.1 If at any time the Committee consider that the interests of the Society require it they may suspend a member from the Society for a fixed period of time or until further notice. 15.2 A member who is suspended shall not during the period of suspension be entitled to any privileges of membership but may in accordance with Rule 13 attend any General Meeting at which his/her expulsion is sought. 16. Officers 16.1 The Officers of the Society shall be:- President, Regional Vice President, Chairman, Secretary, Membership Secretary, Editor and Treasurer each of whom must be elected at the Annual General Meeting. 16.2 All Officers of the Society must have at least three years’ continuous membership immediately prior to their election to Office. 16.3 Nominations for Officer and Committee positions are to be submitted to the Secretary at least 21 days before the Annual General Meeting. 16.4 In the event of insufficient nominations being received by the due date, the Chairman shall be empowered to accept nominations at the Annual General Meeting. 17. Committee 17.1 The administration of the Society (except as otherwise provided by these rules) shall be carried out by a Committee of not less than 7 and not more than 24 Members who must be elected at the Annual General Meeting. 17.2 In addition to the elected members, the Officers of the Society are ex officio members of the Committee. 17.3 All correspondence on behalf of the Society must be seen and noted by the Secretary. 18. Election of members of committee 18.1 At each Annual General Meeting one half of the Members of the Committee must retire, but are eligible for re-election if there are insufficient replacement nominations. 18.2 To create a sufficient number of vacancies, the Members of the Committee must retire in order of seniority, and in case of equal seniority the order of retirement must be determined by lot.

page 262 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 18.3 The Committee may nominate members of the Society to fill the vacancies. 18.4 Any two members may at any time propose any other candidate or candidates, by notice in writing to the Secretary or in person, verbally, at the AGM. 18.5 Balloting lists must be issued at the AGM containing in alphabetical order all the names so obtained, distinguishing the candidates proposed by the Committee, and showing the names of the proposers of other candidates. 18.6 Every member of the Society is entitled, but not obliged, to vote for as many candidates as are proposed. 18.7 Up to the number of vacancies, the candidates who receive most votes must be declared elected, and in the case of two or more candidates receiving an equal number of votes, the chairman of the meeting has a second or casting vote. 19. Vacancies on Committee 19.1 The Chairman or the Committee may appoint a member to fill any casual vacancy on the Committee until the next Annual General Meeting. 19.2 Any member so appointed must retire at the next Annual General Meeting but may be elected as a Member of the Committee at that meeting. 20. Meetings of Committee 20.1 The Committee must meet at least twice in every year 20.2 Seven members of the Committee form a quorum 20.3 Decisions shall be taken by simple majority vote of those present. 20.4 Minutes of all the proceedings of the Committee must be taken and must be open to inspection by any member of the Society on application to the Secretary. 20.5 The Committee meetings shall be chaired by the Chairman or in his/her absence the President or in the absence of both another Committee Member elected at the meeting in question. 20.6 At the first meeting of the Committee following each Annual General Meeting the Committee must elect an Editor of the Society’s journal who shall hold office until the first Committee meeting following the next Annual General Meeting. 20.7 The Society will create an Award or Awards for such purposes as the Society may from time to time decide at the Annual General Meeting. Awards may be made annually. A Committee Member will be identified to collate all nominations, the closing date for which will be the 31st July of each year. All nominations will be discussed by the full Committee at the October meeting. An award may not always be made but the decision of the Committee must be considered as final. A full presentation to the award winner will be made to the next Annual General Meeting. 21. Executive Sub-Committee 21.1 The persons from time to time holding office as Chairman, Treasurer, Secretary, President, Membership Secretary and Editor shall constitute the Executive Sub- Committee. 21.2 The Executive Sub-Committee shall deal with administrative matters arising between meetings of the Committee and other matters (including enquiries) as directed by the Committee. 21.2.1 The Executive Sub-Committee shall meet as required. 21.2.2 Three Members of the Executive Sub-Committee (one of whom must be the Chairman) constitute a quorum 21.2.3 Decisions shall be taken by simple majority vote of those present. 21.2.4 Meetings may be held by telephone including a series of telephone calls on a one to one basis provided that all Members of the Executive Sub-Committee are contacted. 21.2.5 A resolution in writing signed by all the Executive Sub-Committee Members shall be as valid as if it had been passed at a meeting and may consist of several documents in the form each signed by one or more of the Executive Sub-Committee 21.3 The Executive Sub-Committee must report its proceedings to the Committee at each Committee meeting and must conduct its business in accordance with its directions.

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 263 21.4 A member may submit to the Executive Sub-Committee claims for monetary assistance when representing the Society in an official capacity, necessary for the efficient performance of the Society’s business. The Executive Sub-Committee may then grant an appropriate award not exceeding such sum as the Committee shall from time to time decide 22. Indemnity for Officers and Committee 22.1 The Officers and the Committee shall be indemnified by the members against all costs damages liabilities incurred by them in or about the execution of their duties or otherwise in relation thereto. 22.2 No Officer or Committee Member shall be liable for any loss damage or misfortune which may happen to or be incurred by the Society in the execution of the duties of his/her office or in relation thereto. 23. Codes of Professional Conduct and Practice 23.1. The Committee may from time to time make, repeal and amend any Codes of Professional Conduct and Practice and/or regulations (not inconsistent with these rules) as it thinks expedient for the management and well-being of the Society. 23.2. All regulations made by the Committee under this rule are binding on the members until repealed by the Committee or set aside by a resolution of a general meeting of the Society. 24. Annual General Meeting The Annual General Meeting of the Society must be held in March in each year on a date and at a time to be fixed by the Committee and must: 24.1 receive from the Committee a report, balance sheet and statement of accounts for the preceding financial year and an estimate of the receipts and expenditure for the current financial year; 24.2 fill the vacancies in and elect the Committee and for the ensuing year; 24.3 decide on any resolution which may be submitted to the meeting in the manner provided below; 24.4 fix the annual subscription of the Society and 24.5 consider any other business as determined by the Committee or by the previous Annual General Meeting or as raised by any member at the Annual General Meeting itself. 25. Notice of business at Annual General Meeting Any member who desires to move any resolution at the Annual General Meeting may give notice in writing to the Secretary not later than 1st February or raise it at the Annual General Meeting. 26. Special General Meeting The Committee may call a Special General Meeting at any time for any special purpose, and must do so immediately upon a requisition in writing (stating the purposes for which the meeting is required) signed by not less than 20 members entitled to vote. 27. Convening general meetings 27.1 Notice of the Annual General Meeting shall be given in the Society’s Magazine at least 14 days before the Annual General Meeting. In the case of a Special General Meeting notice of the meeting and the business to be transacted at it must be sent to every member at least l4 days before the meeting. 27.2 No business other than that of which notice has been given may be brought forward at a General Meeting. 28. Proceedings at general meetings 28.1 At all general meetings of the Society the Chairman, or in his/her absence the President, or in the absence of both a member selected by the Committee, must take the chair. The President will sit with the Secretary at the Chairman’s table during the meeting. 28.2 Every member present is entitled to one vote upon every motion, and in case of an equality of votes the chairman may have a second or casting vote.

page 264 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 28.3 All resolutions shall be passed by simply majority of votes cast. 29. Quorum 29.1 The quorum at all general meetings is 20 for all motions and business. 30. Amendments 30.1 No amendment (other than a motion for adjournment) may be moved to any resolution proposed at any annual or Special General Meeting unless the meeting consents. 30.2 Whenever notice of any amendment to be proposed is given, it must be posted on the Society’s web site immediately. 31. Financial Year The financial year of the Society ends on 31st December in each year, and the accounts of the Society must be balanced to that day. 32. Audit of accounts 32.1 All funds shall be paid into the Society bank account via the Treasurer. Withdrawals shall be made by both of two of signatories nominated by the Committee. 32.2 The Society is non-profit making and any excess in funds shall be directed back into the Society for its general betterment. 32.3 The accounts must be audited by a professional accountant as soon as practicable after the end of the financial year. 32.4 The accountant auditor must be appointed at each Annual General Meeting and must not be a member of the Society. 33. Visitors No non-member of this Society may attend the Annual General Meeting/Lectures or any other meeting, unless personally invited by the Secretary. 34. Members not to make profit out of Society No member may on any pretence or in any manner receive any profit, salary or emoluments from the funds or transactions of the Society without the permission of the Committee. 35. Society address not to be used for business No member may give the address of the Society in any advertisement or use the Society address for business purposes. 36. Members’ addresses Every member of the Society must from time to time communicate his/her address to the Secretary, and all notices sent by first class post to that address are considered to have been given on the day following the date of posting. 37. Interpretation of rules 37.1 The Committee is the sole authority for the interpretation of these rules. 37.2 The decision of the Committee upon any question of interpretation or upon any matter affecting the Society and not provided for by these rules or by the regulations is final and binding on the members. 38. Amendment of rules 38.1 These rules may be added to, repealed or amended by a resolution passed at any annual or Special General Meeting by simple majority of votes cast. 39. Dissolution of Society If at any general meeting a resolution for the dissolution of the Society is passed by a majority of the members present the Committee must immediately, or at such future date as is specified in the resolution, proceed to realise the property of the Society and after the discharge of all liabilities must divide such property equally among all the members and on the completion of the division the Society will be dissolved. 40. Headings The headings to these rules are for ease of reference only and are not to be taken into account in their interpretation.

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 265 Code of Conduct

The Fingerprint Society fully supports the aims and ideals of the CRFP.

The Fingerprint Society is happy to adopt the CRFP Code of Conduct that all members should adhere to.

As a registered forensic practitioner you must: 21. Recognise that your overriding duty is to the court and to the administration of justice: it is your duty to present your findings and evidence, whether written or oral, in a fair and impartial manner. 22. Act with honesty, integrity, objectivity and impartiality: you will not discriminate on grounds of race, beliefs, gender, language, sexual orientation, social status, age, lifestyle or political persuasion. 23. Comply with the code of conduct of any professional body of which you are a member. 24. Provide expert advice and evidence only within the limits of your professional competence and only when fit to do so. 25. Inform a suitable person or authority, in confidence where appropriate, if you have good grounds for believing there is a situation that may result in a miscarriage of justice.

In all aspects of your work as a provider of expert advice and evidence you must: 26. Take all reasonable steps to maintain and develop your professional competence, taking account of material research and developments within the relevant field and practising techniques of quality assurance. 27. Declare to your client, patient or employer if you have one, any prior involvement or personal interest which gives, or may give, rise to a conflict of interest, real or perceived; and act in such a case only with their explicit written consent. 28. Take all reasonable steps to ensure access to all available evidential materials which are relevant to the examinations requested; to establish, so far as reasonably practicable, whether any may have been compromised before coming into your possession; and to ensure their integrity and security are maintained whilst in your possession. 29. Accept responsibility for all work done under your supervision, direct or indirect. 10. Conduct all work in accordance with the established principles of your profession, using methods of proven validity and appropriate equipment and materials. 11. Make and retain full, contemporaneous, clear and accurate records of the examinations you conduct, your methods and your results, in sufficient detail for another forensic practitioner competent in the same area of work to review your work independently. 12. Report clearly, comprehensively and impartially, setting out or stating:

page 266 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 a. your terms of reference and the source of your instructions; b. the material upon which you based your investigation and conclusions; c. summaries of your and your team’s work, results and conclusions; d. any ways in which your investigations or conclusions were limited by external factors; especially if your access to relevant material was restricted; or if you believe unreasonable limitations on your time, or on the human, physical or financial resources available to you, have significantly compromised the quality of your work. e. that you have carried out your work and prepared your report in accordance with this Code 13. Reconsider and, if necessary, be prepared to change your conclusions, opinions or advice and to reinterpret your findings in the light of new information or new developments in the relevant field; and take the initiative in informing your client or employer promptly of any such change. 14. Preserve confidentiality unless: a. the client or patient explicitly authorises you to disclose something; b. a court or tribunal orders disclosure; c. the law obliges disclosure; or d. Your overriding duty to the court and to the administration of justice demand disclosure. 15. Preserve legal professional privilege: only the client may waive this. It protects communications, oral and written, between professional legal advisers and their clients; and between those advisers and expert witnesses in connection with the giving of legal advice, or in connection with, or in contemplation of, legal proceedings and for the purposes of those proceedings.

FAIR USE NOTICE

This journal contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Fingerprint Whorld makes such material available in an effort to advance scientific understanding in the field of latent prints, thus constituting a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this journal for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 267 GUIDELINES FOR AUTHORS

Items of a scientific and technical content, professional opinion, reportage, work practices, case reports, historical essays, personal views, and any other subject matter that the Editor considers suitable, will be considered for publication in Fingerprint Whorld. Papers of a scientific and technical content may include science and technology-based research papers involving chemistry, statistical analysis, advancements in fingerprint and scene of crime development techniques, computer enhancement and any other topics relating to research in and advancement of development techniques in connection with fingerprint and scene of crime-related disciplines. The primary aim of authors of such works will be to have novel experimental or interpretive content in their papers but equally acceptable will be works that give fresh perspectives on the history or progress of advancements to the present day, as these may benefit new students coming into their respective disciplines as sources of reference. Papers should be written so that they are comprehensible to the majority of the readership of Fingerprint Whorld. Articles are published as the author’s intent and not as an endorsement of the content by the Editor or The Fingerprint Society.

SUBMITTING A PAPER Scientific and Technical Work Ideally, the following requirements should be fulfilled by authors: 1) Three paper copies forwarded to the Editor together with one set of original illustrations or photographs; clear photocopies for the other two sets. 2) In addition to the paper copies, the work should be on 3.5 inch floppy disk saved in any of the following formats: Any Macintosh format, notably ASCII, MacWrite or MacWrite II IBM formats: RTF, TEXT DOS, Word DOS 5.5, Word Windows 1.0, 2.0, 6.0 WordPerfect DOS 4.2, 5.0, 5.1, 6.0, AmiPro 1.2, 2.0, 3.0, 3.1 Photographs and line art in original form but are acceptable on disk if saved as TIFF, JPEG or EPS files.

Non-scientific and Technical As above but with only one paper copy supplied with illustrations etc. if needed, and a 3.5 inch floppy disk with the article saved in any of the accepted formats. Submissions must have a covering letter from the author stating that the paper has been seen and approved by all who have assisted in or contributed to its preparation. If relevant or necessary, the approval should be included of any organisation or agency that may have been responsible for the commissioning of the work or the employing authority of the author. Permission should also be given to reproduce published material, copyrighted photographs, illustrations or logos etc. A separate title page for the work containing the title and author’s name and address must accompany the submission. It is not the intention of The Fingerprint Society to always require first publishing rights or total copyright of a work but it does recognise that other journals demand that this protocol be followed. The Fingerprint Society will not preclude publication of any paper if it has been

page 268 FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 submitted previously or simultaneously to other journals but notice of such action is required as a common courtesy and the necessary permission in the case of prior publication is mandatory from the original source. If copyright rests with the author this should not be a problem. The Fingerprint Society has a commitment to the dissemination of fingerprint- related knowledge in our representative disciplines above any other consideration regarding first publication. This should not be taken to imply that The Fingerprint Society has any less of a commitment to providing a high standard of written work. In any regard, it is hoped that authors will recognise Fingerprint Whorld as a highly relevant and informative forum in which to have their work published.

LAYOUT Text should be double-spaced on white paper, A4 or a close equivalent and pages numbered consecutively. The first page should be a title page with full details of the author. For scientific and technical papers (and others if desired) a short abstract should precede the main text giving the purpose, basic procedures, main findings and principal conclusions. Innovative and important aspects should be particularly emphasised. Illustrations should be of high contrast and clearly marked with sufficient information to explain them without reference to the text. Photographs can be submitted in black and white or colour (the published image will be in black and white). Sizes should be no bigger than 10" x 8" and show sufficient detail for their purpose. References should be numbered consecutively in the order that they appear in the text. Most of the above instructions will be easily recognised and understood by the majority of authors who are used to submitting papers of a scientific or technical nature. It is not the intention of The Fingerprint Society to adhere to a strict regimen of submission rules, therefore, these are guidelines only. Authors not familiar with such presentation practices should not be discouraged from submitting papers in a format that they are used to. The above guidelines are merely for ease of preparation and editing of the published article.

REVIEWING OF PAPERS The Editor reserves the right to seek the opinion of a referee on any work submitted for publication in Fingerprint Whorld. Normally, scientific and technical papers will be assessed by up to two referees who shall remain anonymous. These works shall be forwarded to a referee without the title page for anonymity but authors should understand that their work may be recognised by the reviewer. Authors may suggest names of suitable referees who could assess the paper. An author may also wish to have a work refereed prior to submission but in this case the name and position of that person or persons must be included in the covering letter. Although this is not the path to independent review as such, it will be expected that the paper has been checked and verified and assessed in an impartial manner; the Editor shall have the final decision as regards publication. Anonymity of referees and authors will be strictly adhered to unless it is mutually agreed otherwise. A list of referees will be published in Fingerprint Whorld.

FINGERPRINT WHORLD Vol 31 No 122 October 2005 page 269 FINGERPRINT WHORLD – ISSN 09511288 Quarterly (January, April, July, October) Volume 31 Issues 119 – 122 Published by: The Fingerprint Society Printed by: Warwick Printing Company Ltd., Caswell Road, Leamington Spa CV31 1QD. Editor: David Charlton, Ug Dip, FFS E-mail: [email protected]

MEMBERSHIP SUBSCRIPTIONS – 2006 Membership Fee £27 (US$56, CAN$67), Fellowship Fee £27 (US$56 CAN$67). Application forms for membership and renewal of dues should be forwarded to The Membership Secretary. Changes of address or circumstances should be forwarded to The Membership Secretary, Warwickshire Police, Fingerprint Bureau, Scientific Support Unit, High Street, Southam, Warwickshire CV47 0HB.

SUBSCRIPTIONS INFORMATION For all countries the subscription rate is £48 per volume. Single issue price is £12. Within the UK the journal is sent by second class packet mail or second class letter rate. Delivery to all overseas countries is by printed matter rate via airmail from the United Kingdom.

SUBSCRIBERS RATES – 2006 UK/Europe: Individual – £42 sterling Institutions – £63 sterling USA, Canada and Other: Individual – £52 (US$95) Institutions – £73 (US$133) Currency: Sterling or US Dollars – Payment in sterling by cheques must be drawn on a British bank not an overseas bank. Renewal subscriptions are due 1st January each year. For more information contact: The Subscribers Secretary, The Fingerprint Society, c/o Mrs. Cheryl McGowan, Lancashire Fingerprint Bureau, PO Box 77, Hutton, Preston PR4 5SB.

ORDERS AND BACK ISSUES Requests for back issues or copies of articles should be made to The Archivist. There may be a charge made for providing such material to cover postage and packing costs. There will also be a charge as per issue/volume prices for those not in membership of The Fingerprint Society.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE Except as otherwise permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Acts, 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the Publishers or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency in the UK.

OBJECTIVES AND SCOPE Fingerprint Whorld is a quarterly peer-reviewed journal that reflects the aims of The Fingerprint Society, which are to advance the study and application of fingerprints and to facilitate the cooperation among persons interested in this field of personal identification. It is devoted to the theory and practice of fingerprint identification science and its associated disciplines. To assist these aims Fingerprint Whorld recognises that its membership is international and multi-disciplinary and as such sees a need for both new and review articles across the spectrum of forensic science evidence gathering topics to assist in the continual professional development of all stages of the profession.

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