The Latent Print discipline within the Michigan State Police holds the distinct honor of being the foundation upon which today'’ Forensic Science Division was built. Originally established in 1925 as a division of the Bureau of Identification, it became it’s own separate entity in 1937 under the direction of Mr. Laurence Stackable. In 1957, almost twenty years later, Daniel C. Myer became the first enlisted officer to be assigned to the Latent Print Unit. Soon following were other reassignments of enlisted officers to the unit and the growth has continued to its present strength today. Currently, 28 enlisted examiners and 2 civilian examiners from seven forensic laboratories throughout the state staff the Latent Print Unit.

Today’s examiners are required to possess a Bachelor’s degree with chemistry as a part of the curriculum. Once they gain entrance in the discipline, they begin an extensive two-year training program under the supervision of a senior latent print examiner. They are given instruction in photography of latent prints, processing of evidence, and the comparison of latent prints against known inked impressions. A strong foundation of the history and theory of latent prints is also provided to the new examiner. Other areas of instruction include how to testify as an expert in the court of law and how to process and investigate crime scenes.

The premise behind identifying a suspect by latent prints has gone unchanged since the early 1900’s. However, the means and the steps taken to develop latent prints, coupled with the establishment of the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), have changed drastically, resulting in fewer unsolved crimes each year. The fingerprint powders of yesteryear are now being complimented with chemical development, alternate light source applications, and computerized, digital enhancement. These methods that are being used by the MSP’s latent print examiners are at the cutting edge of technology with respect to the science of latent prints. It is because of this technology, backed by extensive training, that has resulted in a reputation second to none.

Porous and nonporous evidence can be examined for latent prints. Latent prints can be compared with known inked impressions. Inked impressions from unknown deceased, incapacitated, or uncooperative subjects can be compared with known inked impressions. These same latent prints and unknown inked impressions can be searched in AFIS, the Automated Fingerprint Identification System, a database of inked impressions from arrested subjects and latent prints from unsolved crimes.

The Michigan Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) is a computerized system for electronically encoding, searching, and matching tenprint and latent fingerprints. Currently, AFIS contains 1,285,314 fingerprint records in the Tenprint Database and over 23,292 unsolved latent fingerprints in the Latent Database.

There is a sense of pride that exists with being a latent print examiner for the Michigan State Police. It is pride resulting from knowing that they are part of a small group of latent print examiners in which nobody does it better. We thank you for your interest in our discipline, and we sincerely hope that if the opportunity comes your way to engage in a career as a latent print examiner, you take it. It is truly a rewarding experience.