Lecture 7

• Ink slab/Inking Plate – refers to a piece of metal or a plane glass with as much as ¼ thick and 6 or more inched long where the fingerprint ink is distributed for fingerprinting.
• Carl Holder – refers to a gadget used for clipping the fingerprint card to avoid movement of the card during printing.
• Fingerprint ink - refers to an especially manufactured ink for purposes of taking fingerprints.
• Fingerprint card – refers to a piece of card used for recording the ten fingerprints. The usual size is 8” x 8”.
• Ink Roller – refers to an instrument used for spreading the ink into the ink slab or inking plate.
• Scissors – instrument used for cutting latent print tapes and for other purposes.
• Rubber gloves – to protect the technician’s finger from leaving his own prints on the object
• Post mortem Fingerprint Equipment - refers to a set of equipment consisting of hypodermis syringe,
• Post mortem Fingerprint Equipment - used for taking prints of dead person.
• Fingerprint table - a table intended for taking fingerprints.
• Fingerprint Pointers – use for pointing the ridges in the conduct of ridge counting.
• Fingerprint Cameras – use in photographing the developed latent prints.
• Forensic Optical Comparator – an equipment used to compare two fingerprints at the same time.
• skin - is known as the largest organ and the first line of protection in the human body.
• skin - It covers the body from head to toe and is referred to as friction ridge skin.
• AFIS - automated fingerprint identification system
• (2) Type of fingerprint

  1. Rolled impression
  2. Plain impression
• rolled impression - is an impression made or placed in a fingerprint card which is taken individually by rolling the ten fingers of the subject 180 degrees from tip to the second joint.
• Rolled impression - This requires that the thumbs be rolled towards the body and the fingers away from the center of the subject’s body.
• Plain impression - is an impression made simultaneously that serves as a reference impression.
• Plain impression - This requires that the fingers be taken simultaneously, then the thumbs – no need for rolling the fingers.
• Poor ink - resulting in the ridges being too light to count or trace.
• Dirty finger or equipment - presence of foreign materials which may result from failure to clean thoroughly the inking equipment or the fingers, may cause false marking, distorted ridges or disappearance of characteristics.
• Improper rolling – failure to roll the finger fully from one side to the other resulting in incomplete prints which may cannot be fully identified.
• Slippage – this happens when the fingers are allowed to slip or twist resulting in smears, blurs and false patterns.
• Over inking - using of too much ink resulting obliteration of the thin layer with the roller.
• Incomplete inking – failure to ink the entire bulb of the finger, from joint to tip from side to side of nails, resulting in the possible omission of deltas and core.
• (8) Reason for poor fingerprint impression

  1. Poor Ink
  2. Dirty finger or equipment
  3. Improper rolling
  4. Rolling more than once
  5. Too much pressure
  6. Slippage
  7. Over inking
  8. Incomplete inking
• Temporary deformities - in such case the ridges are not exactly destroyed but they weakened the result
• Permanent disabilities - a case of amputated fingers. In a case of a perain w/o finger at birth, it should be noted "missing fingers at birth" or "born w/o fingers"
• Deformities - an infrequent problem of a person with an extra finger
• Webbed fingers - also known as syndactyly, is a condition where two or more fingersare fused together by a membrane of skin and soft tissue
• Latent prints - defined as a marking of oily matter or perspiration from the skin gland
• Latent prints - it is best described as a combination of chemical which is exuded by the pores on the surface of the skin
• Chance Impression - these are the impression left by chance at the crime scene
• Visible prints - often impress on dust, blood oil or grease
• patent impression - a visible impression found in blood
• plastic impression - a visible impression on the surface of soft object and plastic materials
• plastic impression - usually molded into the surface of material such as putty or modelling clay
• invisible prints - prints that are made due to the sweat present in the fingers and thumb of a person that is transferred to any object that he holds