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Fitzwater Fingerprint Consulting Services is dedicated to providing factual fingerprint information, advice on identification by fingerprints and superior fingerprint examinations to private individuals and law enforcement professionals. We are also dedicated to providing quality fingerprint training to the law enforcement professional. Consultation and training are individually customized to meet the situation of each individual. Fitzwater Fingerprint Consulting Services offers a range of fingerprint services including consulting on fingerprint and fingerprint identifcation matters, examining items for fingerprints, fingerprint analysis, comparison of unknown impressions with known impressions, verifying fingerprint identifications, expert fingerprint testimony and training in all phases of the fingerprint science. Clients include various law enforcement agencies, defense attorneys, private investigators, small businesses, major corporations, as well as private individuals. Subject matter expert Randall Fitzwater is a retired FBI Latent Print Unit examiner and supervisor with over 39 years of law enforement experience in the fingerprint field. He has conducted examinations of inked and latent fingerprints, including crime scene and laboratory examinations. Mr. Fitzwater has advised numerous police officials and police agencies on fingeprint issues. He has presented court testimony on numerous occassions at the local, state, Federal and international levels and has been accepted as a fingerprint expert in each instance. Mr. Fitzwater has presented fingerprint training across the United States, having taught fingerprint courses since 1988 at the local, state and Federal levels. As a fingerprint instructor, he possesses the unique characteristics of an outstanding trainer who is also a subject matter expert. His training abilities were developed through thousands of hours of conducting police schools. Instruction is presented by multimedia lecture, demonstration, and maximizes hands-on exercises. Students finish each training course with the knowledge and a high degree of self-confidence in their newly acquired skills. Please contact us for a full resume, fee schedule or to discuss any fingerprint-related matter.

PO Box 502   Fredericksburg, Virginia 22404 540-373-7121

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Fingerprint History Time Line

• 1684     Nehemiah Grew studied and described ridges on surfaces of the hands and feet.
• 1686     Marcello Malpighi noted friction ridges & patterns
• 1823     John Evangelist Purkinje writes a thesis including a description of 9 fingerprint patterns, but he did not                              mention the use of fingerprints for identification.
• 1858     Herschel began using fingerprints officially
• 1877     Hershel introduces fingerprints for prisoners
• 1880     Faulds publishes article in Nature
• 1882     Gilbert Thompson, of the US Geological Survey, uses his own fingerprints on sutler’s orders to prevent fraud.
• 1883     Mark Twain writes "Life on the Mississippi"
• 1892     Sir Francis Galton publishes book "Finger Prints"
• 1892     Vucetich uses fingerprints in police system
• 1893     Vucetich identifies murderess by bloody fingerprints
• 1900     Sir Edward Richard Henry publishes "The Classification and Use of Fingerprints"
• 1901     Fingerprints officially adopted in England & Wales
• 1902     Dr. Henry Pelouze DeForrest pioneers 1st systematic use of fingerprinting in US by introducing fingerprints                          to the New York Civil Service system
• 1903     1st systematic use of fingerprints in US to identify criminals
• 1904     US Penitentiary at Leavenworth and St.Louis PD established fingerprint bureaus
• 1905     US Army adopts fingerprints for identification purposes
• 1907     Mary Holland, first US fingerprint instructor, introduces fingerprints to US Navy, which later adopted the                               method
  
• 1911     First Appellate Court decision in US on fingerprints - Illinois v. Jennings
• 1924     Identification Division of the FBI established as a central repository for fingerprints, started with                                        approximately 810,00 fingerprint cards from Leavenworth and IACP files
• 1937    New York begins using an IBM horizontal sorter utilizing fingerprint classifications punch cards
• 1978    FBI begins using a laser to develop latent fingerprints.
• 1999    FBI introduces the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System
• 2004    FBI erroneously identifies Brandon Mayfield in connection with a terrorist bombing in Spain.