The Ames Laboratory's forensics research effort may have just received its first major funding, but it has already resulted in tangible advances in crime fighting. Fingerprinting equipment designed and built in collaboration with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation has been delivered and evaluated and is now in regular use at the DCI's Criminalistics Laboratory.
The equipment consists of two devices designed to improve the development of latent fingerprints on a variety of items, from plastic bags to rifles. Both devices assist in the use of superglue vapors to reveal fingerprints.
One is a "glove box" cabinet that allows fingerprint examiners to control humidity when developing prints, to observe the development process and to handle potential evidence while fingerprints are under development. Built using a standard laboratory glovebox, the cabinet also allows examiners to add and remove items using the built-in rubber gloves.
The other device is a vacuum chamber that allows examiners to develop prints on surfaces that usually obstruct or even prevent fingerprint development. In this tube-shaped device about 1-foot in diameter, low pressure takes the place of heat to cause the superglue to vaporize.
Since taking delivery of the equipment, the DCI has
run numerous tests to determine the optimal use of the devices.
DCI criminalists and examiners are also preparing
at least one scientific
publication to inform others
about their success using the new equipment.
"This equipment allows our fingerprint examiners
a lot more flexibility and the chance to be more
successful in doing their job," said Carl
Bessman, a criminalist with the Iowa Criminalistics Laboratory.
"We have already used the equip-ment in actual cases."
~ Robert Mills