Practice keeps investigative skills sharp

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Mike Andriacco
  • 380th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFNS) --  Practicing skills and maintaining job proficiency are key factors in accomplishing the mission on a day-to-day basis.

Recently a member of the 380th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron here was able to practice and demonstrate fingerprinting skills in a mock crime scene scenario.

According to Tech. Sgt. Kathy Trim, not all security forces members in the Air Force attend the training required to collect fingerprints from a crime scene that are admissible in court.

"Only security forces Airmen who attend Military Police Investigator School will receive the training," said Sergeant Trim. "Only trained investigators will collect and preserve latent prints, but other functions in the security forces career field can print individuals."
An investigator may be called to collect prints in a variety of crime scenes such as housebreakings or drug cases. The prints are used to establish a suspect's presence at the scene or to rule out possible suspects. In order to be used in court, the latent print samples must meet strict criteria and proper collection is critical.

"It takes skill and patience to locate, dust, and then lift an identifiable finger print," Sergeant Trim said. "It is easy to smudge a latent print during the collection process. A smudged print provides no evidential value [would be inadmissible in court]."

For the purposes of the exercise, a crime scene was constructed to simulate a break-in to a government facility. Fingerprint evidence was left behind and Sergeant Trim was able to lift several latent prints and was able to use them to single out and identify a "suspect." 

Case closed.

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