Morristown Police Department Detectives Attend Latent Fingerprint Courses

With the Federal Bureau of Investigation concentrating resources on threats from abroad, there is a greater need for regional and local Fingerprint Examiners. Morristown Police Department’s Forensics Technician, Detective Mike Bacon, and Evidence Custodian, Detective Michael Morrison, attended training in July and August for Fingerprints and Latent Print Examination.  The classes were held at the Sirchie Education and Training Facility in Youngsville, NC.  Sirchie is an internationally known provider of forensic tools and other law enforcement equipment, as well as, a training provider.

Both classes were taught by retired Deputy Director of CCBI (City County Bureau of Identification) in Raleigh North Carolina, Johnny Leonard.  He is an IAI (International Association of Identification) – Certified Latent Print Examiner, and IAI – Certified Footwear Examiner; he is also a former FBI agent.  Topics covered included the classification of fingerprint types, scientific basis for identification procedures and individual analysis using the ACE-V (Analysis Comparison Examination – Verification) method. The courses taken required intense focus and meticulous attention to detail; each student analyzed approximately 1,800 fingerprints.

Now that Detectives Bacon and Morrison have completed these two courses, they are prepared to compare fingerprints recovered from crime scenes utilizing the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) which is maintained by the FBI and houses millions of fingerprint records. The MPD maintains computer hardware on site dedicated solely to fingerprint study and comparisons; it is linked to the AFIS System.  The MPD is committed to training personnel with evolving technology and procedures to better serve the community.