Development of Latent Fingerprints on Thermal...

Development of Latent Fingerprints on Thermal Paper Using Soil and Chalk Powder

Author Name : Komal Pal, Krati Singh Chauhan, Kopanathi Kruthi

ABSTRACT

Fingerprints play a vital role in crime scene investigation. They are important evidence that can help in the determination of the culprit. The formation of fingerprint happens when the print comes in contact with a surface and this print consists of sweat residue, amino acids, fatty acids. Fingerprint are of three types latent, patent and plastic prints. There are various techniques that help in the development of fingerprint. There are many powder techniques like titanium dioxide, lead, rhodamine G that are used to develop latent prints. When the latent prints are available on a surface and they cannot be developed with the help of powders in such cases chemical techniques are used. With the help of these techniques the prints can be visualized clearly on various surface that might be porous or non-porous in nature. The most commonly used chemical methods used for the development of the fingerprints are iodine fuming, ninhydrin, cyanoacrylate esters. In the chemical techniques the reagents used to develop the prints tend to interact with the residue present in the prints. In the chemical methods after the prints get developed, they can be collected by tape lifting method and they can also be photographed. The fingerprints can be found on porous and non-porous surfaces. Depending on the surface on which the print is found fingerprint development techniques are used. Thermal paper could act as important evidence as their surface carries latent prints. In this research the possibility of development of a latent print on the thermal paper using chalk powder and soil powder is checked.

Keywords: chalk powder, fingerprints, soil powder, and thermal paper.