Daryl W. Clemens, Editor
From the Editor
It's been a long cold winter
here in the midwest, but the
weather is finally warming.
Not only that but we have a
fresh crop of new CSI's at
my agency, all young and
inspired and ready to work.
Here at the examiner we have
new blood too. I'm pleased
to announce that Kyprianos
Georgiou will be taking over
the editor position. We will
be doing the next couple of
newsletters as a team, with
the intent of handing off
all responsibility by the
end of the year.
Daryl
Got comments/questions or want to
submit an article for The Examiner?
e-mail me:
Daryl
W. Clemens
Director's Letter
Greetings Members!
The CSI Conference is just around the
corner and I hope to see many of you
there. Our membership is increasing
with new memberships coming from as far
away as South Africa. We will in fact
have presentations at the conference
about the forensic and CSI systems from
other countries such as South Africa,
Poland, Belize and maybe a few others.
ICSIA is truly an international
association. I believe at the
conference you will see about 25
attendees from 14 different countries !
The conference promises to be well worth
the cost to your agency or money well
spent by you. So far there about 8
vendors and more may join us as we get
closer to the conference. Workshops are
planned as well as break-out sessions of
special interests. The shuttle is free
from the airport to the hotel and a
shuttle will be available in the
evenings to take people to Bourbon
Street and back! If you are unable to
make please share the info with others
so they too can enjoy the conference!
http://www.icsia.org/conference/2015/index.html
We continue to see changes in forensics
and crime scene work. It is a never
ending changing field with new
technology being introduced frequently.
The conference will address some of
those changes including those on DNA,
UAV’s and new techniques. We will also
demonstrate some of the “old”
techniques. I say old because I have
been at this for about 45 years now and
things we did decades ago are “New” to
some of the CSI’s now. Sometimes we
take for granted what we know and assume
everyone knows the same information. In
my travels I find that is not true. So
we will address some of the older
techniques that may be new to others!
We will have a new newsletter editor by
the time the conference starts. But I
want to take this opportunity to Thank
Daryl Clemens for doing an excellent job
as the editor for all these years. Job
well done Daryl!
If you have not taken the time to read
the newsletters they are posted on the
web site and do contain some great
information, links, articles and
techniques. It is input from you that
will keep the newsletter going so please
consider sharing your knowledge,
photographs and techniques with ICSIA
Members.
ICSIA also has articles in the Evidence
Technology Magazine.
http://www.evidencemagazine.com/ We
strongly encourage you all to
participate and get published. The
magazine is available for free in print
and digital format. It is only available
in digital format for those outside the
USA.
Stay safe and we will see you at the
conference!
Hayden B. Baldwin, Executive Director
International Crime Scene Investigators
Association (ICSIA)
ICSIA's 2015 Conference
New Orleans, Louisiana (Jefferson
Parish)
Welcomes the 2015 ICSIA Conference.
May 19th-21st, 2015
by The Federal Bureau of Investigation
Identification and Investigative
Services
Next Generation Identification LogoThe
NGI system, developed over multiple
years, is an incremental replacement of
the Integrated Automated Fingerprint
Identification System (IAFIS) that
provides new functionality and improves
existing capabilities.
The FBI’s Criminal Justice Information
Services (CJIS) Division operated and
maintained IAFIS, which became the
world’s largest person-centric biometric
database when it was implemented in July
1999. Since then, advancements in
technology and the changing business
needs of IAFIS’s customers necessitated
the next generation of identification
services. To further advance biometric
identification services, the CJIS
Division, with guidance from the user
community, established the vision for
the Next Generation Identification.
Read More
Fingerprints
By Kyprianos Georgiou
1. What are
fingerprints?
Throughout the last few decades,
different attempts have been made to
define fingerprints. Some defined
fingerprints as a pattern resulted
from “the perspiration of sweat
exuded from the sweat pores which
occur in single rows along the
ridges of the friction ridge skin”
(Jackson and Jackson, 2008).
Langford et al (2005, p. 153)
defined fingerprints as “deposits of
fatty residue left after sweat has
evaporated”. Some others defined
fingerprints as the “reproduction of
friction skin ridges found on the
palm side of the fingers and thumbs”
(Saferstein, 2007, p. 432). Triplett
(2010) however, defines fingerprints
as “the unique pattern that is
created by the friction ridges on
the fingers; this pattern may be
transferred from the fingers to
other items in the form of a known
print”.
These ridges, “form patterns,
considerable in size and of curious
variety of shape, whose boundaries
can be firmly outlined and which are
little worlds in themselves”
(Galton, 1892). Sir Francis Galton,
started growing interest in
fingerprint research in 1988. He
conducted many experiments over
numerous years in order to determine
the persistence of fingerprints on
different individuals’ fingers.
After personal correspondence with
Sir William Herschel, he obtained
old fingerprint samples (deposited
up-to 31 years earlier – 1859) that
were used by Herschel for his own
research. After intensive
examination of these fingerprint
samples, he concluded that
fingerprints are both permanent and
unique, and he developed a
“systematic, understandable and
applicable system for fingerprint
classification” (Holder, Robinson
and Laub, 2011; p. 100). The human
skin is the heaviest and the largest
organ. Humans have two different
types of skin; volar and smooth. The
smooth skin consists of hair,
sebaceous glands and sweat glands,
whereas, the volar skin only
contains sweat glands (Ashbaugh,
1999). These sweat glands are
located on what are known as
“papillary ridges”.
Read More
On the Web-
By Kyprianos Georgiou
This is a really interesting
article (.pdf) comparing the use of
the conventional "Superglue fuming"
with one of the latest (ish)
developments "PolyCyano" (a
combination of superglue and a dye
which fluoresces under UV light):
Get the article here
This PDF file was taken from the
"National Institute of Standards and
Technology" and it explores
different aspects of latent
fingerprints. It also explains the
framework developed for ID search on
AFIS:
http://www.nist.gov/director/vcat/upload/12-INDOVINA-Fingerprints-10_14-FINAL.pdf
This site identifies a number of
issues relating to latent finger
marks. It also has several articles
about latent prints from Interpol,
FBI and NIJ and more:
http://www.latent-prints.com/
This PDF file identifies the
different chemical enhancement
techniques for the development of
latent fingerprints. It also
includes a brief history of
fingerprints:
http://onin.com/fp/History_of_LP_Development_Methods_IAI_2013.pdf
I hope you enjoy it all
Kyp