Fingerprint device may help find terrorists

SCIENTISTS are developing technology that recovers fingerprints from metal surfaces such as bomb fragments and gun cartridges, which could help track down terrorists.

Metal surfaces can yield crucial fingerprinting evidence in cases involving gun crime and terrorism, but there can be problems retrieving evidence.

Fingerprints on metal surfaces need to be made visible with powders and chemicals that do not work well on “sweat” prints, which can also partially disappear in high temperatures such as a bomb blast or a gun firing.

Researchers at the University of Wales Swansea are developing a technique to overcome these problems.

It exploits the tiny electrochemical reactions caused when sweat from a fingerprint comes into contact with a metal surface.

Using a device which can detect differences in electrical potential across a surface, changes caused by these reactions are measured and used to produce a picture of the print, even from surfaces that have been heated up to 600°C.

The new technique works with iron, steel, aluminium, zinc and brass, and can cope with curved surfaces like cartridge cases.