The purpose of this four-day workshop is to empower the student through realistic, practical exercises to:

• Understand the initial role of the crime scene and evidence technician in signal recognition.
• Recognize the series of critical steps that detect and optimize evidence in the journey from scene to stand.
• Receive, document, and maintain the integrity of physical evidence while retaining it in possession for fingerprint examination.
• Stay vigilant for, seize, and protect other evidence that falls outside the fingerprint discipline.
• Diagnose and triage the nature and composition of compound exhibits.
• Be familiar with the nature, application, target, and mechanism of proven fingerprint detection methods currently in use.
• Select the sequence of processes that will afford the maximum extraction of evidence, of all kinds, on compound exhibits encountered during the investigation of a crime.
• Apply these processes skillfully and in the correct order to achieve maximum evidence extraction.
• Photograph impression evidence using atypical techniques, recording all the details present.
• Deliver knowledgeable, effective testimony in court as to the continuity of the evidence, explain the mechanisms and limitations of the techniques employed, and explain the decisions that led to the processes used to obtain evidence.

The students will be formed into two-person teams. Each will receive his/her own compound exhibits on Day 1, but will work as partners to confer and decide on strategy. Together, each team will select the appropriate sequence of actions, process the exhibits accordingly (Day 2), record their findings with a DSLR camera (Day 3), and be prepared to tender evidence in mock court on the final day, as to their actions and the chemistry and physics behind the procedures they have followed.

• All professionals who process crime scenes and/or exhibits for fingerprints, footwear impressions, and other forms of physical evidence encounter complex or compound exhibits and strive to leave nothing behind.
• All professionals who wish to learn to triage compound exhibits, select the appropriate number and order of examination procedures for any given piece of evidence that will afford the best likelihood for recovery of all latent evidence.
• All professionals who seek a deeper understanding of the mechanisms and range of the dominant fingerprint detection methods. All forensic photographers who record impression evidence in preparation for comparison and/or AFIS search, and seek the tools to solve challenging recording situations that fall outside conventional photography.
• All professionals who seek a realistic, holistic training experience that comprises all facets of evidence assessment, protection, detection, recording, documenting, and presenting, from crime scene to courtroom.