The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
A slick lawyer can successfully argue against all kinds of evidence pointing to his client's guilt, but thankfully, there is one burden of proof that can never be dismissed Ñ fingerprints. "It's hard evidence," says Cst. Nolan Suss of the Flin Flon RCMP, who scours local crime scenes for the distinctive marks. "If we have a fingerprint, without a doubt we can say that a certain person was at the crime scene." Cst. Suss' expertise is an invaluable asset to local law enforcement. While Flin Flon has access to a forensic team in The Pas, those workers cover a sizable region and it doesn't always make sense for them to investigate minor crimes. That's where Cst. Suss comes in. With a special fingerprint kit in hand, he investigates everything from vandalized cars to home burglaries. Upon arriving at a scene, his first duty is to extensively photograph the area, providing police with a detailed visual record they can refer back to at will. At one scene he may photograph footprints; at another, a window that's been forcefully pried open. Cst. Suss then looks over the scene for something Ñ anything Ñ the criminal may have left behind, including the distinctive marks on the ends of his fingers. "For the most part, you look for what people have been handling and touching and going through," he says. "When you grab something, oils on your hand which adhere to the ridges on your fingers, are left behind." It's this oil, normally not visible to the naked eye, that is the key to identifying fingerprints. Once he finds an item believed to feature the criminal's prints, Cst. Suss uses a light brush to apply a special powder to the area. "This powdered chemical adheres to the oils, and where there is no oil, it won't adhere, so the fingerprint becomes visible," he explains. "The fingerprint was always there, but then it becomes visible." After identifying a print, Cst. Suss uses a grease pencil to circle its location and, using a 35mm camera, photographs the print. See 'Important' P.# Con't from P.# Next is the most important step, called a "lift," when he applies a sticky plastic film to the powder, giving police a physical transfer of the print. The print is sent to the RCMP forensic unit in The Pas, where experts determine whether the print is of a high enough quality to serve identification purposes. If it is, they categorize the print and send it to Ottawa, where it can be compared against the RCMP's national database of fingerprints. The Pas also houses a collection of fingerprints of criminals in this region. The whole process is never too much trouble for Cst. Suss, especially if it means nabbing a bad guy. "There's nothing too small for me to do," he says. "That's where I come in, to do the stuff we wouldn't call The Pas up for." Cst. Suss most recently fingerprinted homes targeted in the rash of burglaries that plagued Flin Flon from September to December. The prints he obtained unquestionably placed the suspect at three of the homes. Given the size of the community, Cst. Suss said fingerprints commonly confirm what police already knew or suspected. "It's kind of an enclosed community and you can't do a whole lot here without being known," he says with a smile. Of course the power of fingerprints and other crime scene evidence is known to anyone who's ever watched a police TV show. Consequently, criminals take added precautions, such as wearing gloves, while stepping over to the wrong side of the law. "Sometimes they're a lot more informed than I would like them to be," says Cst. Suss.
