A trustworthy method of identifying someone is by their fingerprints.
That is the main justification for why fingerprint identification has taken the place of other techniques for locating people who are reluctant to acknowledge prior arrests made under different names.
No human process is perfect, but fingerprint activities that adhere to national and international quality assurance recommendations, rules, and standards are very trustworthy when examining and identifying fingerprints (including palm, toe, and footprint imprints).
The science of fingerprint identification stands out among all other forensic disciplines for a variety of reasons, including the fact that it has provided accurate person identification to governments all over the world for more than a century. In many trillions of comparisons made by both automated computers and human beings, no two fingerprints have ever been identical.
Fingerprints are the cornerstone of how police departments around the world confirm criminal histories.
The International Association for Identification (IAI), the first forensic professional organization, was founded in 1915.
In 1977, the IAI’s Certified Latent Print Examiner (CLPE) program was established, becoming the first professional certification program for forensic scientists. The forensic fingerprint discipline has never asserted the infallibility of latent print examiners. The IAI’s certification program has been awarding certification for more than 40 years to people who meet strict requirements and revoking certification for faults (quality assurance issues) such incorrect identifications.
With many thousands of new people being added daily to fingerprint repositories around the world, it is becoming more and more popular as the main way for correctly identifying people in government data systems.
It has remained the most widely used forensic evidence in the entire world for more than a century. In most jurisdictions, the number of cases involving fingerprint examination matches or exceeds that of all other forensic examinations put together. More suspects are identified and legal proof is produced by fingerprints collected from crime scenes than by any other forensic laboratory technology combined.
Not because fingerprints are more reliable as evidence than DNA, but rather because there are so many fingerprint records recorded in government systems, fingerprints have a better probability of helping to solve a crime than DNA. The US Government’s (FBI and DHS) databases now include more fingerprint records annually than the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) database did in the previous 20 years.
