2014/06/05

SBS 4 Jun 2014: Dutch scientists crack fingerprint dating

A world-first discovery has determined how to accurately date fingerprints, which experts say will revolutionise criminal forensics.

Criminals' days may be numbered after Dutch forensic experts discovered how to accurately date fingerprints, a breakthrough that could one day let police date crime scene prints from years ago.

"It's not quite the Holy Grail of fingerprinting, but it's a very important discovery," Marcel de Puit, fingerprint researcher at the Dutch Forensic Institute (NFI), said on Wednesday, hailing what he said was a world's first.

"Police regularly ask us if we can date crime scene fingerprints," he said, for instance a neighbour's prints found at the scene of a burglary.

Were they left the last time the neighbour came round for coffee or from the night of the crime?

"Being able to date the prints means you can determine when a potential suspect was at the crime scene or which fingerprints are relevant for the investigation," De Puit said.

Fingerprints leave nearly-unique marks on a surface that can be copied and compared to a database to identify a suspect, a police technique that rose to prominence in the early 1900s. more