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Latent fingerprints

TECHBeat, January 2016

Date Published
January 2016
Publication Type
Technical Assistance, Report (Technical), Report (Technical Assistance), Program/Project Description
Agencies
NIJ-Sponsored

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.