They just might be solving a crime. One of the most important clues in identifying possible suspects is dusting for fingerprints. Besides learning that little tidbit of in formation at the seventh class session of the Roy Police Department's Citizens' Academy on Wednesday, I also learned that fingerprints are much more complex than I had previously thought. I knew each person has a completely unique print, but I didn't know why.
Most people have fingerprints that are classified into patterns called whorls, arches or loops.
If you look closely at your finger tip, you can see the ridges of the prints and how they break off into separate lines and patterns, called minutia points. Within those minutia points are thousands of tiny sweat glands that, along with oils from other sources, causes a print when a person touches an object. After being located, those prints are lifted by large strips of masking tape, then analyzed with a computer that picks out the minutia points. Hackley gave all of us the chance to muck up the face of a clock or a smooth surface of a chair, then try and lift our prints off of the objects. He also talked of how they can trace the trajectory of a bullet with a new laser CSI recently purchased and how using an alternative light source can detect certain types of bodily fluids on fabric.