The Fingerprint Bureau is part of the Force Scientific Support Unit and is based at Wakefield. In addition to the teams covering different areas of the Force, there are specialists covering Cheque and Document Fraud, Serious Crime, Bogus Official Offences, Handwriting Technology and the registration of all fingerprint records. When cases are received, their first task is to analyse the marks before proceeding. Many are eliminated from people having legitimate access, and others may be deemed to be of no value. Any fingerprints which are outstanding are then considered for identification purposes.
Identification is made in a number of ways.
The simplest is when a named suspect is forwarded by an investigating officer or SOCO and a match is found. The Bureau also maintains collections consisting of copies of the fingerprints of all local, current offenders - particularly burglars and car thieves. In addition, the fingerprints of all newly identified and suspected people are checked against marks from outstanding offences. In 1993 a more valuable tool for identifying fingerprints became available. This system captures and stores the digitised fingerprint images .