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The Laboratory Services Section specializes in fingerprint, footwear, and tire print analysis.  Lab personnel are also responsible for training officers how to locate, develop, and lift latent fingerprints. The FWPD Lab has evolved into a regional leader in the field of fingerprint analysis.

Uniform officers, Detectives, and Crimes Scene Technicians routinely lift prints at crime scenes.  Any item that may be difficult to process at the scene is taken into evidence and processed at the lab or the vehicle-processing garage.

Once a print is located, a variety of dusting and lifting techniques are utilized to transfer the print to a storage medium that will preserve the image.  The print-image is then examined for pattern characteristics that will result in a certain classification.  Surface textures and other factors can determine whether a print can be lifted from an item.  Through past experience, most officers can quickly determine if an item or surface will yield any usable prints.

In the year 2002, after many years of research, the department finalized the purchase and installation of an Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS).  At a cost of over one million dollars, the AFIS system is expected to be a significant investigative-support tool in the department's crime fighting arsenal.

The AFIS system uses computer-based technology to ascribe a digital code to all fingerprints scanned into its database.  As fingerprints are collected from arrestees, the data library continues to grow.  The Fort Wayne/Allen County system currently contains the prints of over 86,000 people and is growing every hour.  In addition to our local files, we now have the ability to tap into the FBI's national fingerprint database which contains the fingerprints of millions more people.

When a latent fingerprint is found at the scene of a crime, it can now be scanned into AFIS and checked against the existing database.  AFIS provides a list of possible matches, which are then analyzed by a fingerprint-specialist for final confirmation.  The AFIS systems also helps to identify prisoners who provide false identification when they are arrested.  Within first six months of its implementation, AFIS tripped-up 48 prisoners who clamed to be someone else.   While very expensive to implement and maintain, the AFIS system is expected to yield years of public safety support by aiding in the identification and conviction of hundreds of criminals who would otherwise go undetected and free to prey on more victims.