Today, as you may be able to predict from the pictures, I spent the day with latent print examiners. Basically, they take prints that the agents retrieve and match them with local fingerprints from the database ( which includes conceal carry permits/ sex offenders/ prior arrests) and try to get a hit. Once the system gets a hit, it is sent to an official examiner to conduct up close comparison and then decide if they will affirm that it is positive, inconclusive or exclusionary. It was nice because they had an official schedule so I got to meet pretty much the whole department throughout the day which definitely kept it entertaining. Although after a few hours I had learned everything about what they do, so I ended up just having fun conversations with each person. One person I talked about my experiences in China and with another we got into Harry Potter.
The coolest part of the system is that if a print is entered and doesn’t get a hit, then it will stay in the system and the system will run reverse checks every day to compare with new arrests. This means that if you commit a crime and get away with it, but then get arrested later for something else then you could get charged with both. The most prominent case of this was a kid who had been breaking into houses since he was 10 and when he was finally arrested for something several years later, they matched him for TWENTY FIVE HITS for other burglaries. Pretty cool eh?
I had a great day with latents and they were definitely my favorite people to talk to since I probably had the most in common with them. The only annoying part was having to explain what I am interested in, where I want to go to school, how I got into this field and basically every other basic small talk question for EVERY SINGLE PERSON. After a certain point I just wanted to call them into a conference room and lay it all out to spare myself the trouble, but I kept my mouth shut since they were taking time out of their day to “educate the minds of youth” as one of the examiners had jokingly said.
I have had an incredible four days at the CCBI and am super grateful for the opportunity to have shadowed here and gain the perspective that I have. I also know how to commit the perfect crime now ;).