CLPEX Chat Board

On Tuesday afternoon I testified in a forgery case.

One of the questions from the defense went like this:

"I see that you're wearing prescription glasses. Have you found that your vision has deteriorated with time?"

I had just had my eyes checked a few weeks earlier. My reply was, "I have my eyes checked yearly and my prescription has went unchanged for the past several years."

One of the jurors laughed out loud.

So be sure to keep up on those eye appointments...

Vision is a favorite topic of mine. With the students I've had, there has been a wide spectrum. So here are some of my observations (and while my observations apply to fingerprints, I think they would extend to documents):

1. Twenty-twenty vision is not necessarily an asset in fingerprint comparison, nor is it a handicap.

2. Nearsighted people make excellent latent print examiners as long as astigmatism, if present, is corrected. A nearsighted person without significant astigmatism can frequently see details with their naked eyes and without a magnifier that a "normal" person cannot see at all unless high magnification is available.

3. Farsighted people are not at a disadvantage as long as the magnifiers they are using can be adjusted for sharp focus.

4. Colorblind people can see details in smudged or smeared prints that "normal" people have more trouble distinguishing.

5. Dyslexia might be a handicap, but like most other handicaps, it can be overcome.

6. "When looking at the fingerprints in the case on trial today, I could see the ridge detail perfectly well to know those prints were made by Mr. Defendant."

Pat A. Wertheim wrote:Vision is a favorite topic of mine. With the students I've had, there has been a wide spectrum. So here are some of my observations (and while my observations apply to fingerprints, I think they would extend to documents):

2. Nearsighted people make excellent latent print examiners as long as astigmatism, if present, is corrected. A nearsighted person without significant astigmatism can frequently see details with their naked eyes and without a magnifier that a "normal" person cannot see at all unless high magnification is available.

Being nearsighted, one thing I noticed a long time ago is that I can focus closer w/o my glasses (my contacts are worse than my glasses). Since I wear glasses when I'm at the office, my magnifiers are focused as such. But if I remove my glasses to look at a print, I have to readjust the magnifiers.

After discussing my vision with my optometrist, we actually reduced my prescription a few years ago. My distance vision was much stronger than it needed to be and I wanted to be sure my close-up vision was at its sharpest.