Comparative Analysis of Black Powder and Small Particle Reagent (SPR) for Development of latent Fingerprints on Non-Porous Surfaces

Introduction: Fingerprint identification is one of the pioneer methods used for the identification of the perpetrators during the investigation of a crime scene. There are number of developing techniques formulated over the years. Materials and Methods: In the study we have compared various techniques used in development of finger print on three non porous structures. All the prints obtained were scored using finger print quality assessment scale. The good quality prints were obtained in freezing temperature on day 1 and day 5 at the same time at room temperature day 6 gave good quality prints. Results: SPR method was more effective in developing latent fingerprints from glass and plastic surfaces up till day 6. Black powder method had better mean scores at freezing temperatures for metal, glass and plastic surfaces. Also, the duration of submersion has a significant effect on the quality of the fingerprint; the lengthier the period, the poorer the feature of the prints. Conclusions: The result shows that SPR showed good visibility up to day 6 in both glass and plastic surfaces. Though not statistically significant, black powder showed higher mean value at freezing temperature for all the three surfaces.