Prefered media for LP examinations

[josher89]

I'm creating this to see what the community would rather see, or is seeing, regarding latent print submissions. Are you seeing more digitally captured latents, still seeing a lot of physical lifts, or a combo of both? The poll is what you would RATHER see, not what you are currently seeing. You can comment on what you are seeing and why you prefer one over the other. I'm really curious to see what other's opinions are.

[NRivera]

I have to throw this caveat in: I prefer original images that are properly taken. I think that can be a challenge if your submitters are field officers and not specially-trained crime scene technicians/investigators/officers. In that case, I'd rather get the lifts and I will be more than happy to photograph in the lab.

[ER]

I'd throw another caveat in. I believe that having a lift or a photo is more a question of the best way to preserve the latent print after processing. That's a separate question from which you would prefer to see during comparison. There's nothing wrong taking lifts, but comparing onscreen of photos or scanned lifts is my definite preference.

Also, scanning lifts to become digital images does not involve a significant reduction in comparable details. Printing digital images to turn them into "lifts" involves a significant reduction in comparable details.

[josher89]

@ER--agreed, scanning lifts doesn't degrade the latent in such a way as to make it unusable. I'll generally scan in all latent prints anyway (for ease of retention/re-examination mainly) but if it's an ID, we chart everything now so I'd need to scan it in anyway. Or, if I need to submit to AFIS, I'll need to scan it in so why not just build that into our workflow? It is.

There are a lot of times where I get both (lifts and images) and it's up to me to determine which one(s) I will use--I think you and I have had several side conversations/phone calls regarding this very thing and how to document it properly. In a lot of cases, one is not better than the other. So, I still go to the image before I go to the lift. I guess I'm just a young(ish) whippersnapper that doesn't like to be hunched over all day staring through a 2" lens.