Home Services Training Fingerprint Facts About Us Contact		Fitzwater Fingerprint Consulting Services offers the following: Consulting - Consultation with attorneys in any matter concerning fingerprints and fingerprint identification, including both inked and latent fingerprint matters, as well as preparation for the cross-examination of a fingerprint expert Consultation with law enforcement agencies regarding all fingerprint matters, including the examination of evidence for latent prints, verification of latent print identifications, quality assurance and the preparation of examiners for courtroom testimony Consultation with banks, corporations and businesses that use inked fingerprints in their operations. Fitzwater Fingerprint Services also offers training in fingerprint matters for these organizations. Review of reports, examinations, examinations notes, comparisons and idenfications conducted  - Reviewing reports, examinations, examination notes, comparisons, identifications, eliminations, and comparisons to provide quality assurance and quality control Conducting latent print examinations - Conducting fingerprint processing of items for the development of latent fingerprints, analyzing and comparing latent fingerprints with known inked fingerprints, reviewing latent print comparisons conducted and identifications effected by other entities Development of latent prints on items and the subsequent comparison of any developed latent fingerprints with known (inked) fingerprints Technical Writing of latent print unit guidelines, standard operting procedures of latent print units and latent print training manuals Training of law enforcement personnel in all aspects of the fingerprint science, including Latent Print Development;  Basic and Advanced Friction Ridge Comparison & Identification, Simultaneous Impressions, and  Expert Courtroom Testimony. Courses can be developed and customized according to the desires and needs of law enforcement agency.

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Errors in Fingerprint Identification

René Ramón Sanchez On July 15, 1995, Rene Ramon Sanchez, a legal Dominican Republic immigrant, was stopped and arrested for driving while intoxicated. His fingerprints were attached to the fingerprint record of Leo Rosario, who had been arrested the night before for selling a bag of cocaine to an police informant. In August 1998, Sanchez observed swerving in his car and stopped on Amsterdam Avenue in upper Manhattan. He was again charged with DUI. (The charges were ultimately dropped.) About a year later, Sanchez was stopped for a defective taillight and spent several hours in custody. On Oct. 11, 2000, upon returning from a visit to relatives in the Dominican Republic, Sanchez was taken into custody. A name check at Kennedy Airport had linked him to Rosario. “Mr. Rosario's” probation was terminated when  Immigration and Naturalization Service made a request for deportation proceedings. Even though Sanchez did not match the physical description of Rosario, the fingerprint checks were considered more reliable than descriptive data. After two months in jail and several legal hearings later, Rene Ramon Sanchez was released. Shirley McKie Shirley McKie was a police detective in Kilmarnock, Scotland. In 1997, she was accused of entering the Marion Ross murder crime scene and leaving her thumb print inside the house  Although detective constable McKie denied being inside the house, she was arrested the following year and charged with perjury. The only evidence was a fingerprint found at the crime scene. At her trial in May 1999, two fingerprint experts from the United States testified that the fingerprint from the crime scene was not made by McKie. She was found not guilty.  Although the Scottish Criminal Record Office (SCRO) would not admit making an error, Scottish first minister Jack McConnell said there had been an "honest mistake." On February 7, 2006, McKie was awarded £750,000 in compensation from the Scottish Executive and the SCRO. Controversy continues to surround the McKie case with calls for either a public or a judicial inquiry into the matter. Stephan Cowans Stephan Cowans was convicted of attempted murder in 1997 after he was accused of the shooting of a police officer while fleeing a robbery in Roxbury, Massachusetts. He was implicated in the crime by the testimony of two witnesses, one of whom was the victim. The other evidence was a fingerprint on a water glass from which the assailant drank. Police fingerprint experts testified that the fingerprint was a fingerprint of Cowans. He was found guilty and sentenced to prison for 35 years. He earned enough money cleaning up biohazards in prison to have a DNA test of the evidence. The DNA did not match. Mr.Cowans died on October 25, 2005, shortly after his release.