Processing Latent Prints on Bloody and Special Surfaces

Instructor: Morgan Hays, CLPE
Course length: 24 hours

This Processing Latent Prints on Bloody and Special Surfaces course includes comprehensive training in the chemical processing of latent print evidence found on bloody and difficult to process surfaces. One day will be spent learning to use photography as tool to document the evidence. Exercises that include specialized lighting techniques and use of forensic light sources to visualize and photographically record the evidence are included.

The processing, collection, and preservation of fingerprint evidence are primary concerns for those who have conducted crime scene investigations for the past 100 years. Many of the individuals who are currently charged with this responsibility have not had the opportunity to attend a course of instruction on the proper application of latent fingerprint processing techniques that are available to them.

This accelerated 24-hour course on the processing, recovery, and photography of latent print evidence has been designed for detectives, crime scene investigators, and fingerprint identification specialists. This course will provide both lecture and hands on techniques for processing latent prints on porous and non-porous surfaces, using both mechanical and chemical techniques.

The Processing Latent Prints on Bloody and Special Surfaces course will also introduce students to photographic and lighting techniques that are useful in the documentation of latent print evidence. Photography is essential in cases where prints cannot be otherwise collected, where processing techniques do not render permanent results, and in cases where processed evidence is not readily visible or discernable to the naked eye. Since this course presents techniques that include fluorescent fingerprint reagents, an overview of forensic light sources will be presented, and students will have access to forensic light sources in order to visualize and photograph the evidence they process in class.

Safety will be stressed in all exercises.

W. Morgan Hays, CLPE

Morgan Hays holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Anthropology from Florida State University. He is a certified latent print examiner and is currently supervisor of a Latent Print Section at a state crime lab.

He has participated as a technical assessor of latent prints for ISO 17025 laboratory accreditation assessments from the municipal to the federal level.

In 2009, he was awarded the Missing Children’s Day Law Enforcement Task Force/Team of the Year.

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