Instructors: Rachelle Babler, CLPE, and Tom Washington, CLPE Course length: 16 hours
This 2-day, 16-hour Detection of Forged and Fabricated Latent Prints Workshop will explore the forgery and fabrication of latent prints and how an examiner can detect characteristics of this fraudulent activity during his or her analysis. The forgery and/or fabrication of latent prints is a serious issue of which examiners must be aware in order to document and bring to light its use. Familiarity with forged and fabricated latent prints can also assist the examiner in determining that evidence of forgery and fabrication is NOT present in a case.
This workshop includes:
Forgery (Day 1) The first day of class will be focused on learning about fingerprint forgeries and how to detect them during the analysis process. The class will review the different methods in forging fingerprints and will, with experimentation, try to replicate forged prints using these methods. This will improve an examiners ability to recognize forged prints during casework.
In addition, there will also be a review on “spoofing” or the use of forged fingers in bypassing biometric security systems. The class will discuss the different types of biometric sensors as well as some case review of incidents involving spoofing.
Fabrication (Day 2) The second day of class will focus on the fabrication of latent prints and how an examiner can detect them during the analysis process. The class will review the three methods of fabricating, hands on experimentation to recognize ‘red flags’, several case studies, testimony, ethics, and suggestions for standard operating procedures regarding this fraudulent activity.
This course is appropriate for Latent Print Examiners of all skill-levels. Students should bring a fingerprint magnifier to class.
