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Evaluative Research

TECHBeat, September/October 2015

NCJ Number
249253
Journal
Date Published
October 2015
Agencies
NIJ-Sponsored
Publication Type
Report (Technical), Report (Technical Assistance), Program/Project Description

How Reliable Are Latent Fingerprint Examiners?

September 2015

Brian Cerchiai discusses a NIJ-supported a study conducted by the Miami-Dade Police Department on the accuracy of fingerprint examiners. The study found that fingerprint examiners make extremely few errors. Even when examiners did not get an independent second opinion about their decisions, they were remarkably accurate. But when decisions were verified by an independent reviewers, examiners had a 0% false positive, or incorrect identification, rate and a 3% false negative, or missed identification, rate.