CLPEX Chat Board

What are your thoughts on releasing a result (Identification/Exclusion/Inconclusive) before the results have been verified?

If this is something your agency does, how are the procedures written?

Our agency is not permitted to release results until the latent prints have been verified by another examiner. Releasing results before the prints are verified can potentially cause problems such as running the risk of giving out the wrong information (i.e., bad ID, disagreement among examiners when it comes time to verify, etc.). We do have situations where the officer/detective needs the results asap and we get those verified quickly for them, but I also know not everyone has the staff to accommodate these requests. In those cases maybe you could find an examiner at another department willing to verify your print(s). If not, the person needing the results is going to have to be patient until the print is verified.

Definitely not a good idea. All accred. agencies cannot do this (I guess they could but it would be a nonconformance at a minimum) and it's not good practice. I know there are HK's out there that are blatantly obvious (and even though machines routinely perform tenprint to tenprint comparisons will high accuracy), but you should always have a verifier. Otherwise, you aren't satisfying the 'peer review' aspect of good science.

There was another thread here about a kidnapping case and you were basically sure of the ID and in the interest of public safety and getting the kidnapping victim back, should you release a result before it gets verified? That, will be up to you.