CLPEX Chat Board

Anybody notice anything interesting about the image associated with this article?

http://sfist.com/2011/05/24/celebrate_n ... ildren.php

Isn't that Walt from Lost? They should have used Dharma Initiative brand milk.

(ABC is part of the same Walt Disney (Walt Disney = Walt) broadcasting family conglomerate...LOST = MISSING, I think someone's having fun...)

g.

g. wrote:Isn't that Walt from Lost? They should have used Dharma Initiative brand milk.

(ABC is part of the same Walt Disney (Walt Disney = Walt) broadcasting family conglomerate...LOST = MISSING, I think someone's having fun...)

g.

That was my thought too - either that, or they just did a quick Google image search and took that one not making the connection.
It looks like it was an actual prop from the show.

angelay wrote:This is such a wonderful idea to really ensure the safety of children. A great help to all parents. Nice job!

Help me understand how taking kiddie fingerprints helps "ensure the safety of children."

Do baby rapists pass over kids who have been fingerprinted?

Do parental kidnappers leave the kids with custodial parents if they have been fingerprinted?

If the police find a stray child walking down the street, do they run his fingerprints through AFIS or do they merely ask the kid his name? (Hint: Kiddie fingerprints are not in AFIS in the first place.)

If the police recover a body, do they ask for the kiddie fingerprints or do they ask the parents to identify the body?

I'm sorry, but kiddie fingerprint programs are the biggest fraud ever perpetrated by the Public Relations folks at police departments. I would be willing to bet you could count on the fingers of your two hands the total number of times that kiddie fingerprints have been used in the absence of parental identification or the kid himself telling the police who he is, and that is out of probably tens or hundreds of millions of sets of those fingerprints having been taken in the past 25 years.

And the number of times kiddie fingerprints have prevented a crime -- you could count that number inside the hole of the cop's donut.

Kiddie fingerprints make a great souvenir for the parents to have after the kid has grown up. But that's all they do.

they might not ensure kids safety but for those who have to deal with the DVI side of things having a fingerprint, DNA or dental sample can make a difficult job easier. Sounds morbid but unfortunately it is some peoples' reality. Also, think of the child who is kidnapped and not discovered til many years later. These kids can be brainwashed and not have any idea of who they were.

I fingerprinted all my kids, my wife, and even my parents back in the 80's after sitting through a seminar on the plane crash that happened in Dallas in 1985 and hearing about the struggles the investigators went through to try and identify the dead. Of course, with a huge fire, there may be no fingers or hands left, but when you're sifting through remains at a disaster site, or looking at a body you've found in the woods, it would be great if you had something, SOMETHING you could use to see if it was your missing loved one. Back then, I not only took finger and palmprint sets, but hair samples, and detailed pictures of jewelry they liked to wear, and scars, birthmarks, front and side views, etc. I still have them.

Tazman,

Although I mostly agree with your opions about the un-usefullness of "kiddie fingerprints", I want to share with you one of those times I can count on my fingers when this actually helped. We had a brutal murder of a 12-year-old who wasn't discovered for several days after her death. It was the use of her "kiddie fingerprint" card that ultimately resulted in her identification. This was later confirmed by DNA anlaysis but I can promise you, a fingerprint comparison takes was less time than a DNA extraction/comparison. She was so decomposed (and so dead) she couldn't tell us her name and her parents couldn't identify her.

I teach fingerprint classes and do advise my students that those footprints taken at hospitals are for souvenirs. All of the kits we use as part of our "fraud" include hair and DNA swabs as well. It's not just about fingerprints anymore.

Also, we fingerprint criminals to identify who they are, not to prevent them from committing more crimes. I, too, can say that the number of times adults have been fingerprinted that resulted in crime prevention is also zero...does that mean we stop doing it? Of course not. For kids, if it helps once, it's worth it.

My two cents.

Thanks, Josher. I am not saying the kiddie fingerprint programs are rubbish that should be eliminated. When I did my stint taking those prints, I heard about a case in which mom and dad and kid were all three killed in a plane crash and the kiddie prints were found at home and used to establish positive identification on the kid. But the crime prevention unit was selling the program all over town on the bogus promise that the prints "protect" the kids. That was the ridiculous assertion that "Angelay" repeated with which I disagreed at the outset of this discussion.

BTW, what happened to "Angelay?" I note her post has disappeared from the discussion and she seems to have gone missing.

Angelay linked to an objectionable site in her profile so it was deleted. It is thought that the only reasons for the posts were to attempt to establish credibility to not be deleted, and that the goal was to get people to click on that link.