British footprint database to help catch criminals

BRITAIN is launching a database of thousands of shoes and shoe types next month to help track down criminals.

The Footwear Intelligence Tool, thought to be the first of its kind in the world, will be similar to the database of genetic samples Britain created in 1995, which has millions of DNA profiles.

“Footwear marks at the scene are the second biggest evidence type behind blood and DNA,” said Dr Romelle Piercy, of the Forensic Science Service (FSS) in London. Like fingerprints, hair, blood or fibres, footprints are left at many crime scenes — on carpets or bodies as well as in earth or mud — and are often highly distinctive.

Similar clues have already been used to track down suspected bombers and in other major criminal cases.

“The technology, like the DNA database, has no upper limits as far I am aware,” Piercy told reporters.