conventional methods of fingerprint development
- 1. Presented by: Farah Arooj Hassan Abdul Qadir Presented to: Dr. Zafar Iqbal Institute of Biochemistry & Biotechnology, University of Punjab.
- 2. “Fingerprints found at crime scenes lead to more suspects and generate more evidence in court than all other forensic techniques combined.” Interpol European Expert Group on Fingerprint Identification (IEEFG) Methods for Fingerprint Identification Part 1 (2004
- 3. • Friction ridges on hands are known for thousands of years • First suggested by Dr. Henry Flaud in 1880 • The use of chemical compounds for the visualization of latent prints dates back only about 150 years • Most commonly used technique for identification of criminal.
- 5. • Visible print by unaided eye. • Example: A good example of a patent print would be a greasy impression left on a window. • Also in blood, paint, ink, mud or dust • These are formed when the raised friction ridges are physically pushed into the substrate, creating a mold of the friction skin ridge Clay, soft wax, melted plastic, heavy grease, and paint
- 6. • Good source of imaging for patent prints • Plastic impressions are usually photographed under oblique lighting that enhances the contrast of the ridges and furrows. • These prints may also be preserved with silicone-type casting materials.
- 7. • The word latent means hidden or unseen. • Latent prints are undetectable until brought out with a physical or chemical process designed to enhance latent print residue. • Affected by age, gender, stimuli, occupation, disease, and any substances the subject may have touched prior to deposition. • After deposition: surface area, surface curvature/shape, • surface temperature, humidity, time since they were placed and temperature.
- 8. • Help in understanding working of chemicals and developing new reagents. • A latent print residue is mixture of secretion from glands. • 2 major glands in dermis sebaceous glands and sudoriferous glands (eccrine and apocrine). • The print is 99% water and rest is trace amount of amino acids, lipids urea, lactic acid, creatinine, glucose and drugs. • 250 ng of amino acid per fingerprint. They remain there after water evaporates.
- 9. • Finely divided particles that physically adhere to the aqueous and oily components in latent print residue on nonporous surfaces. • One of the oldest and most common methods of latent print detection (1891). • They have affinity for moisture and oily components in a print causes adhesion 2 components. • Pigment (for visualization) • Binder (for adhesion to latent print residue) (Menzel, 1999, p 143).
- 10. • Pigments included lampblack , antimony trisulfide, lead iodide, lead oxide mercuric oxide ,mercuric sulfide • Adhesive materials included starch, kaolin, rosin, and silica gel • Available in different colors Visualization Is done by reflected/absorbed light or fluorescence Application By soft fluffy brush with fine hairs usually made of animal skin. Stiff brushes can damage the latent residue
- 11. • Consists of charcoal and binder. • Applied on light colored surfaces. Even Show up on black glossy surfaces as light color • Produce dark gray image • The powder is taken by brush and gently roll on surface. Excess powder is dusted out. The developed fingerprints are preserved On transparent tape.
- 12. • Inexpensive • Covers a large area • Less substrate painting Disadvantages • Creates mess • Cannot work on porous surface
- 13. Consists of iron powder and pigment A magnetic wand with soft plastic surface is used to pickup the powder and applied The iron filling is then rubbed on surface to deposit the pigment to develop fingerprint. Advantages Easy to clean Can be used on both porous and non-porous surfaces. Disadvantages Less effective on metal surfaces Video Animation
- 14. • Consists of metal flakes of1-50μm diameter and 0.5 μm thickness. • Used on non-porous surface like glass, metallic, highly-varnished surfaces, hard rubber, safes, blue-steel guns or dark-colored surfaces. • Applied by fine fiber glass brush Fingerprints on car surface
- 15. • First used in 1959 for forensics. • Ninhydrin is used on porous surfaces like paper and wall. • It reacts with free amines of lysine residue in proteins sloughed off in fingerprints • Produces deep blue or purple color known as Ruhemann's purple. • White solid, soluble in ethanol and acetone.
- 16. • Applied by spraying or dipping. • Development is done in highly humid environment. Because water is necessary for this reaction. • Stored in dark place to avoid degradation. Disadvantages • Development need long time without humidity • Storage is difficult because it is degraded after sometime
- 18. • Based on the interaction between lipids and fatty acids of sweat residue with colloidal silver particles, silver has affinity for them. • Used for developing prints on wet surfaces because Organic residues are insoluble in water so the physical developer can detect latent impressions • Produce dark gray or black impression • Used on porous surfaces • Used when ninhydrin and iodine fail to work • 4 solutions 1. Maleic acid 2. Redox sol (ferrous nitrate) 3. Detergent 4. Silver nitrate sol. Fingerprints on cardboard
- 19. 1. Pre acidic wash in maleic acid to remove alkaline reagents. 2. Dip and agitate in working sol. made of ferrous nitrate, citric acid, detergent, silver nitrate. 3. Place the sample under running water Disadvantages • Time-consuming • Expensive • Destructive • Short shelf life.
- 20. • Used to enhance bloody prints or detect them in blood • It interacts with proteins in blood and give black impression • Can be used on both porous and non-porous surfaces, skin of corpses • Used by mixing with methanol or water. • Rinse the excess dye with distilled water.
- 21. • Principle: natural body fats and oils in sebaceous material of a latent print temporarily absorb the iodine vapors. This results in a change in color, from clear to a dark brown, until the effect fades with time • Iodine fuming is used to reveal prints on porous and semiporous surfaces such as paper, cardboard, and unfinished wood but not on metallic surfaces • One of earliest methods • Inexpensive and easy • Non-destructive process - other techniques can be used afterwards
- 22. • Iodine crystals are placed in the ceramic or glass dish • Specimen to be processed is placed in the fuming chamber • Gently heating the crystals causes them to sublime • The violet iodine vapor adheres selectively to fingerprint residues, turning them orange • photographed immediately
- 23. • In the lab, iodine fuming is done in a chamber • On the Crime scene, Fuming wands or fuming guns are used • These are simple tubes with a small reservoir for iodine crystals. • The reservoir is heated and iodine vapor is expelled from other end of the tube Fuming chamber iodine fuming gun
- 24. • Semi-permanent by treating them with a starch solution, which turns the orange stains blue-black (persist for weeks to months) • Benzoflavone is another after-treatment for iodine-developed prints. Prints treated with benzoflavone are effectively permanently fixed with a dark blue color. Iodine developed prints fixed with Benzoflavone (right Starch treatment
- 25. • Also called Super Glue Fuming • Latent fingerprint development ability of cyanoacrylate discovered in late 1970s. • One of the most frequently-used latent print development processes. • Used on virtually all nonporous surfaces, including glass, metal, coated papers, and all forms of plastics
- 26. • Principle: the vapors of cyanoacrylate are selectively attracted to fingerprint residues, where it builds up as a crystalline white deposit that can be photographed, or copied onto tape strips. 1. Fumes of Cyanoacrylate (CA) ester monomers are introduced to latent fingerprints and quickly bind with initiators (amines and carboxylic groups) in the residue. 2. The monomer on the fingerprint residue reacts with another CA monomer in the vapor phase to form a dimer on the print. This reacts with another monomer, and another, eventually forming a polymer. 3. The final phase is when the polymer chain reaction is terminated.
- 27. Int = Initiator of polymerization. Amines and carboxylic groups in latent print are the primary initiators of Cyanoacrylate polymerization
- 28. • The object is placed in an enclosed chamber containing a small electric heater. • A small tray made from aluminum foil is placed on heater • When it becomes hot, few mL of cyanoacrylate are added and fuming begins • Fuming is continued until latent prints develop (30s to 15 mins ) • Can be photographed directly or treated with dyes to increase the visibility and contrast of the prints .
- 29. Advantages • Effective on rough surfaces • Vapors are extremely sensitive to fingerprint residue • Developed impressions are more durable • Adaptable to many different crime scene and laboratory situations • Relatively cheap Limitations • Liquid CA and its fumes can cause acute damage to skin, eyes, and mucous membranes • The accumulation of CA fumes on parts of a firearm could have an unfavorable effect during a subsequent firearms examination
- 30. • VMD is a long-established industrial technique for the application of metal coatings to components such as glass to form a mirror. • 1968, French workers reported that VMD of a mixture of zinc, antimony, and copper powder was capable of developing latent prints on paper. • Gold and zinc combination used nowadays • VMD was found to give excellent results on nonporous substrates
- 31. • Plastic bags and packaging • Glass and plastic bottles • Firearms. • Glossy card, photographic paper, and magazine covers • Clean leather items (including handbags and shoes). • Adhesive tapes (non- sticky side). Typical vacuum metal deposition equipment.
- 32. • The questioned surface is placed in a chamber from which the air is evacuated. • The chamber also contains small pieces of gold and zinc that can be heated electrically to vaporize. • Zinc cannot deposit on the oily residues present in the fingerprint but gold can deposit on the entire surface. • Gold absorbed into the oil containing ridges of the fingerprint thus there will be no gold on the surface of the ridges.
- 33. • Next, Zinc is vaporized and will deposit on the substance where Gold is present on the surface i.e. on the background but not on the fingerprint ridges. • The area where zinc is not deposited will be the fingerprint Photograph of print developed on Plastic bag by
- 34. Advantages • Can develop marks on substrates exposed to water and conditions of high humidity. • Can safely develop latent prints on firearms • Outperforms all other techniques in developing prints on plastic bags Limitations • Effectiveness can be reduced by the presence of body fluids and drug residues. • Difficult to develop prints on heavily plasticized polymers. • Requires expensive equipment and materials.
- 35. • Used as early as 1891 for developing latent prints on porous surfaces. • Useful on paper, cardboard, plastics and unvarnished, light- colored woods Principle: The silver ions react with the chloride ions in salt contained in the latent print residue to form silver chloride (AgCl), an insoluble salt which turns grey-black when exposed to light AgNO3 treatment effective because: • The reaction to form the insoluble AgCl is quicker than the ability of the aqueous carrier to dissolve away the soluble NaCl • Insoluble AgCl gets trapped within the structure.
- 36. • Under room light, the AgCl gradually converts by photo- reduction to elemental silver of dark grey-black • Efficient development with 254 nm. • Silver Nitrate solution uses 1-3% w/v aqueous solution for porous surfaces 3% w/v ethanol-based solution for water repellant surfaces low absorbency of such surfaces make developed fingerprints fragile
- 37. 1. Spraying or immersion of surface with silver nitrate solution 2. Rinsed with water after treatment to remove excess silver nitrate 3. The treated surface is exposed to UV light source which reduces AgCl to metallic silver, revealing the prints as gray-black stains 4. The developed prints are photographed immediately and stored in the dark
- 38. Latent fingerprints revealed by silver nitrate development
- 39. Limitations • In prints older than 1 week, resolution will decrease because chloride ions in the latent print residue diffuse over time • Latent prints developed by the silver nitrate method on certain types of glossy paper will often disappear within hours • Used after all other methods because stains of AgCl cannot be removed without destroying the print. Advantages • Since sodium chloride is not volatile, very old latent fingerprints retain it and can be developed by silver nitrate so this can work when other development methods have failed
- 40. • Cyanoacrylate Ester • Ninhydrin • Physical Developer • Amido Black
- 41. • Latent print development by Brian Yamashita and Mike French • Robert Ramotowski (2013). Evolution of latent print development techniques. • Processing guide for developing latent print, FBI, USA
Editor's Notes
- #3: How significant they are
- #8: Types of Prints Fingerprints found at crime scenes or developed in the laboratory are categorized by some examiners as patent, latent, or plastic impressions (Lee and Gaennslen, 2001, p 106), although all three types are routinely associated with the term latent print. A patent print is simply a visible print. Many of these types of prints are wholly visible to the unaided eye, and only some form of imaging is needed for preservation. A good example of a patent print would be a greasy impression left on a windowpane. Patent prints can also be left in blood, paint, ink, mud, or dust. Lighting is a very important consideration in the search for this type of fingerprint; a good
- #9: There are two distinct types: eccrine glands open by a duct directly onto the skin surface; apocrine glands usually develop in association with hair follicles and open into them.Sebaceous glands secretes lubricating oil. The other sudoriferous gland present in skin is the apocrine gland. These sweat glands are associated with the coarse hair of the armpits and pubic area. They are larger than eccrine glands and secrete a thicker fluid (Anderson et al., 1998, p 1561). The gland’s duct typically empties into a hair follicle (above where a sebaceous gland duct would be) before the secretions reach the skin’s surface (Robertshaw, 1991). Because the contents of the apocrine gland often mix with sebaceous secretions prior to reaching the skin’s surface, it is difficult to obtain uncontaminated “pure” apocrine secretions for analysis.
- #10: Early practitioners used a variety of locally available ingredients to make their own dusting powders. Pigment offering contrast and definition against the background surface Some pigment powders offer enough adhesion to be used individually.
- #11: Fluffy brushes enables particles to be easily picked up or “loaded” onto the brush filaments. The low density of this powder also allows it to easily become airborne during the dusting process, making a dust mask or respirator necessary at the crime scene.
- #15: To spread it evenly
- #16: Ninhydrin (2,2-dihydroxyindane-1,3-dione amino acids are always present in perspiration in some amount (Speaks, 1970, pp 14–17). On contact with paper, these amino acids impregnate the surface of the paper, where they are retained by their high affinity for cellulose (Champod et al., 2004,). Amino acids do not migrate. These qualities have been exploited to produce clear, sharp images of fingerprints that were up to 40 years old (Champod et al., 2004, p 114).
- #20: Used on newspapers as well Alkaline reagents react with PD strongly
- #23: Orange prints are not permanent. Non destructive techniqueand used first.
- #24: Heated by a battery operated mechanism
- #35: giving substantial advantages over techniques such as Cyanoacrylate fuming plasticized polymers (such as clingfilm and plasticized vinyl) its use is limited to well-equipped and well-funded forensics labs.
- #37: (waxed paper, cardboard with wax finish, and Styrofoam)