Fingerprinting Merit Badge
Mr. Blackwell – Merit Badge
Counselor
ASM Troop 1833
Instructions
•
A Scout is COURTEOUS - please be respectful to me and others
•
Don’t do anything until I tell you to
•
Fill out your Blue Merit Badge cards
– I will sign them at the end of the class
•
Write your answers in your work sheets as we go – you will be keeping them
•
The history hand out is yours I will ask some of you to tell me some thing about the
history of fingerprinting
•
You will be making your own fingerprint card - you will be keeping them too
•
Clean up after your self - this could get messy
Merit Badge = Finger Printing
Applicant = your name
Blue Cards
Counselor Information:
• Michael Blackwell
•6001 Alderdale PL
•Haymarket VA 20169
•703.743.9958
Blue Card Part 2
Name = your name
Requirement Letter & Number:
•1
•2
•3
•4a
•5
District = Bull Run
Council = NCAC
Fingerprinting Requirements
1.
2.
Give a short history of fingerprinting.
Tell the difference between civil and criminal identification.
Explain the difference between the automated fingerprint identification systems (AFIS) now used by some law
enforcement agencies and the biometric fingerprint systems used to control access to places like buildings, airports,
and computer rooms.
3.
Do the following:
a. Name the surfaces of the body where friction or papillary ridges are found.
b. Name the two basic principles supporting the science of fingerprints and give a brief explanation of each
principle.
c. Explain what it takes to positively identify a person using fingerprints.
4.
Take a clear set of prints using ONE of the following methods:
a. Make both rolled and plain impressions. Make these on an 8-by-8-inch fingerprint identification card available
from your local police department or counselor.
b. Using clear adhesive tape, a pencil, and plain paper, record your own fingerprints or those of another person.
5.
Show your merit badge counselor you can identify the three basic types of fingerprint patterns and their
subcategories. Using your own hand, identify the types of patterns you see.
Why Do We Use Fingerprints?
• A very good way to identify people who might
look alike, or who try to hide their real identity
– like identical twins
– DNA of identical twins is the same but not their
fingerprints
• Fingerprints are permanent – they never
change
• They have individuality – no 2 are the same
History (part 1)
•
•
•
•
•
Ancient History – fingerprints used in many cultures as identifying marks for legal
documents and contracts.
1686 - Marcello Malpighi notes the common characteristics of spirals, loops and ridges in
fingerprints, using the newly invented microscope for his studies.
1880 - Dr. Henry Faulds, a British surgeon and Superintendent of a Hospital in Tokyo,
published an article where he discussed fingerprints as a means of personal
identification, and the use of printers ink as a method for obtaining such fingerprints.
Solved a murder by matching the killers prints to prints on a bottle at the scene.
1888 - Sir Francis Galton’s became the first to provide scientific evidence that no two
fingerprints are exactly the same, and that prints remain the same throughout a person’s
lifetime. He calculated that the odds of finding two identical fingerprints were 1 in 64
billion (.00011 in a 100 billion today, according to certain studies and the use of
computer analysis).
1896 - British official Sir Edward Richard Henry developed a finger print identification
system of his own, which included 1,024 primary classifications.
– 1901 - Henry began training investigators to use the Henry Classification System after founding
Scotland Yard's Central Fingerprint Bureau. Within a few years, the Henry Classification System
was in use around the world, and fingerprints had been established as the uniform system of
identification for the future. The Henry Classification System is still in use today in English
speaking countries around the globe.
History (part 2)
• 1902 - Alphonse Bertillon, director of the Bureau of Identification of the Paris
Police, is responsible for the first criminal identification of a fingerprint
without a known suspect.
• 1924 - The U.S. Congress acts to establish the Identification Division of the
F.B.I. The National Bureau and Leavenworth are consolidated to form the basis
of the F.B.I. fingerprint repository. By 1946, the F.B.I. had processed 100
million fingerprint cards; that number doubles by 1971.
• 1990s - AFIS, or Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems, begin
widespread use around the country. This computerized system of storing and
cross-referencing criminal fingerprint records would eventually become
capable of searching millions of fingerprint files in minutes, revolutionizing
law enforcement efforts.
• 1999 - The FBI phases out the use of paper fingerprint cards with their new
Integrated AFIS (IAFIS) site at Clarksburg, West Virginia. IAFIS will starts with
individual computerized fingerprint records for approximately 33 million
criminals, while the outdated paper cards for the civil files are kept at a facility
in Fairmont, West Virginia.
The Difference Between Criminal
Fingerprinting and Biometric
Fingerprinting
• Who are you? Criminal Identification
Vs
• Who you are. Civil Identification – grants
you access to something (computers
buildings etc)
Automated Fingerprint Identification
System - AFIS
Biometrics
How Fingerprints Work
• Friction Skin is on your palms,
feet and fingers
• Humans and only a few other
animals like primates have
friction skin
• Oils, dirt and other
substances can be transferred
to smooth objects to leave
prints
Types of Finger Prints
60% - 65%
5%
30% - 35%
How does an examiner determine one
from the other?
• Latent print identification relies on three levels
of detail
1. Ridge flow (patterns) Level 1 detail – loop, whorl,
or arch (and subcategories)
2. Ridge formations (ridge Level 2 detail – endings,
bifurcations, dots, or combinations)
3. Ridge path deviation (ridge Level 3 detail structure or formation, which includes ridge width,
shape, pores and other details)
POP QUIZ! Yikes! -- What Type?
A
B
C
Let’s Fingerprint
Your Fingerprint Card