This section of the Training Tool is a tutorial on common friction ridge issues that require examiner action. There are no exercises provided. During examination, you would normally indicate the existence of a special case in its specific field and then proceed to process the print using Quick Minutiae or Detailed Search markup profiles.

If the impression is or may be laterally reversed (i.e., flipped left for right, such as in some prints on transparent tape), note the possible lateral reversal when the image is marked up. The workstation software will create two search transactions reflecting the mirrored image and/or feature data.

Because both possible images are sent as search transactions, the lateral reversal field is not included in the actual search transactions sent to an AFIS.

Ridges in friction ridge images are generally represented as dark areas, with valleys as light areas. The entire image may be reversed tonally (black-for-white) or it may be that only a part of the image is reversed tonally. Indicate this using ‘full’ or ‘partial’ reversal. If definable portions of the image are negative, the examiner may use the local quality issues / LQI field to define the specific tonally reversed areas. Note that in some cases, the tonal reversal is so mixed that only portions of individual ridges are reversed, making it impractical or impossible to define the tonally reversed areas.

When this field is set, the image in the transaction record shall be left as it was originally received (i.e., tonally reversed). A software interface may display the tonally corrected image, but save the image as originally received.

Always indicate when there is evidence that the image may be fraudulent, regardless of the EFS profile used. A comment must be included to explain what indications of fraud are present.

There are four types of fraud: evasion, spoofing, forged evidence, and fabricated evidence:

• Evasion includes actions that prevent/lessen the likelihood of matching, such as by degrading or obscuring physical characteristics or mutilating fingers. Examples are acid balding of fingers or use of a knife or laser to alter the fingerprints.
• Spoofing includes purposefully attempting to be identified as a different person in a biometric system by modifying biological characteristics or using fabricated characteristics. Examples are using a rubber finger, gelatin fingerprint attached to a real finger, or an image of a fingerprint to fool a biometric reader.
• Forged evidence is forensic evidence that was fraudulently placed on the surface from which it was collected, using another mechanism or device than the natural contact with friction ridge skin. An example is using a rubber lifter to move a friction ridge impression from its actual source to another source.
• Fabricated evidence is forensic evidence that never existed on the surface from which it was supposedly collected. An example is a crime scene examiner deceitfully mislabeling the source of images or lift cards.