These criminalists are responsible for making copies of prints found at the crime scene and checking them against known criminal’s prints on a central database. Their targets include fingerprints, palm prints and footprints.

Our fingerprints are entirely unique, remaining the same throughout our lives. Though the basics of identifying a suspect by latent prints haven’t changed for almost a century, the methods of recording and comparing them have. The consistent reliability of fingerprints means that technology now plays a huge role in recording and comparing prints.

Recognition software, digital scanning and huge databases also mean the print examiner’s job is now easier and more efficient.