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The SAPS is entitled to maintain a database of the fingerprints of convicted persons.304 The SAPS keeps two different databases for fingerprints. One database is the one in which fingerprints of convicted persons are stored. The second database is the one consisting of fingerprints that were found at crime scenes, but the ownership of these fingerprints is unknown (meaning that the person had not been identified yet). This type of fingerprints is called latent fingerprints or crime scene fingerprints. These fingerprints are usually compared with the existing fingerprints of convicted persons in an attempt to ascertain ownership of the fingerprints.

If the owner of these fingerprints is not identified, the fingerprints will stay in the database of suspects until the owner has been identified. This means that there is a fingerprint database for convicted persons and a fingerprint database for suspected persons (fingerprints of unknown persons found at the crime scene). In police language, this database is called the AFIS.

302

Interim Constitution Act 200 of 1993.

303

1996 (2) SACR 84 (N).

304

Chapter 5A of the South African Police Service Act 68 of 1995.

During the process of identification, the fingerprints are scanned on the database of convicted persons and if the system (AFIS) 305 picks up the owner of the fingerprint, this is called a hit, meaning the owner of the fingerprint has been identified. Identification can also be done manually by an expert. A hit must be confirmed by manual identification.

In South Africa, the fingerprint database is at the Local Criminal Record Centre and National Criminal Record Centre. Fingerprints are identified manually by an expert and an automated search is done by the AFIS system. Fingerprints that are stored in the database are fingerprints of convicted persons only. If the person has been arrested and released without conviction, the fingerprints of that person are destroyed. The courts in South Africa use the seven-point reliability system. This means that the fingerprint must have seven clear identifiable points to be admissible as evidence. In S v Kimimbi 306 the court accepted seven points of identification as reliable.

In England fingerprints are stored in the NAFIS.307 These fingerprints are taken from every person who has been arrested and charged or summonsed for a recordable offence. In some cases, these fingerprints may be electronically scanned using a live scan and captured images transmitted to NAFIS. If not already on file to confirm the identity of the individual concerned, these fingerprints are added to the national database. It is worth noting that in the past only fingerprints taken from individuals who were subsequently convicted were kept on the database as a permanent record of identity. However, following the implementation of the CJPA 2001, fingerprints from arrested individuals who are not subsequently cautioned for, or convicted of a criminal offence need not be eliminated from the NAFIS system although they are held separately within it. The comparison of fingerprints recovered from a crime scene with those held on the national database may lead to the identification of an individual present at that scene. The NAFIS system is used to do the automated search and is allegedly reliable. NAFIS can be used to establish the identity of an individual unequivocally by comparing a set of ten fingerprints taken from the suspect with any held for that person on the database.308

In the USA, fingerprints of arrested and convicted persons are stored in the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS). IAFIS contains fingerprints and corresponding criminal history information for nearly 50 million subjects or 500 million

305

Automated Fingerprint Identification System.

306

1963 (3) SA 250 (C) 251 F-H.

307

National Fingerprint Identification System.

308 _{Jackson and Jackson Forensic Science 92.}

images, which are submitted to the FBI by state, local and federal law enforcement agencies. A crime scene or latent fingerprint is a dramatic find for the criminal investigator. Once the quality of the print has been deemed suitable for an IAFIS search, the latent print examiner creates a digital image of the print with either a digital camera or scanner. Next the examiner, with the aid of the coder, marks points on the print to guide the computerised search. The print is then electronically submitted to IAFIS, and within minutes the search is completed against all fingerprint images in IAFIS. The examiner may receive a list of potential candidates and their corresponding fingerprints for comparison and verification.

In 1975, police found Gerald Wallace’s body on his living room couch. He had been savagely beaten and his hands were bound with an electric cord. Detectives searched his ransacked house, cataloguing every piece of evidence they could find. None of it led to the murderer. They had no witnesses. Sixteen years after the fact, a lone fingerprint, lifted from a cigarette pack found in Wallace’s house and kept for 16 years in the police files, was entered into the Pennsylvania State Police IAFIS database. Within minutes, it hit a match. The police said that print gave investigators the identity of a man who had been at the house on the night of the murder. Police talked to him. He led them to other witnesses, who led them to the man the police ultimately charged with the murder of Gerald Wallace.309

2.3.8 Problems encountered by the police