You have now been assigned the responsibility of managing a Latent Print Unit. Hopefully, you have the technical knowledge to serve as the unit's senior technical person. If not, you probably need to look for a different version of this training. If you are an experienced latent print examiner, then this short program of instruction is for you. Making decisions based on best industry practices sounds good, but what does that really mean?

• How do I fill the positions within my unit?
• How do I get the most production out of my staff of latent print examiners without sacrificing accuracy?
• How do I design a set of operation manuals that will keep us on track without impeding our examination of casework?
• How do I achieve “buy-in” from my staff members to the way in which I wish the unit to function?
• How do I help them grow professionally?
• How do I properly handle the mistakes, which will most certainly occur?
• How do I ensure that the testimony they provide in court is consistent with the agency’s position and industry recommendations?

These questions and more will be addressed in this training program. Hopefully, you will find it helpful in managing your own unit.

I, Ron Smith, have been an examiner, a manager, and or technical leader in the field of latent prints for almost 50 years. I have made more management mistakes than I care to count, but I have learned so much from them. I have worked for some of the best and some of the worst managers and laboratory directors in the business, and they all contributed to my practical knowledge of managing a latent print unit.

The method of instruction I have chosen may seem somewhat odd at first. We will be discussing some of the worst, just plain dumb ideas I have personally experienced in my career. I hope you understand that, although I now work in the private sector, where we can operate much more freely and efficiently than government-run laboratories, the majority of my career was spent working for state or federal agencies. I did, however, in the last couple of decades of my government employment, discover that there were things that a government agency's latent print manager could accomplish just by doing the research and proposing a ready-made solution to the directors, instead of just presenting the problem.

• Dumb Idea #1 – Human Resources
  • Human Resource personnel can identify the most qualified applicants for the open positions in the Latent Print Unit.
• Dumb Idea #2 – Training
  • New trainee employees can learn to become qualified latent print examiners JUST by working side by side on casework with an experienced LP examiner.
• Dumb Idea #3
  • The number of years of experience and the number of schools a person has under their belt are a guarantee of how good the examiner is today.
• Dumb Idea #4
  • An S.O.P. will set you free?
• Dumb Idea #5
  • A good quality control program will prevent errors.
• Double Dumb Idea #6
  • As long as my examiners are accurate, then productivity levels are not important.
• Dumb Idea #7
  • If a person has been a latent print examiner for many years and has been accepted in the court systems before, then they will be a good expert witness for my
    agency.