Joined KCSO: 2006

Educational background: BA in Criminal Justice

The best thing about my job is when I can assist police officers in the field. Using fingerprints, I can identify someone they have in custody who may be lying about their identity of outstanding warrants.

I never know quite what the day will bring. I could process a large number of arrest cards, verify someone’s identity, or assist an innocent person in sorting out criminal history when someone else has used their name.

Joined KCSO: 2005

Educational background: Certificate in Fingerprinting and an Associates of Applied Science in Forensics from Green River Community College

The greatest satisfaction I get is knowing that the fingerprints and palm prints I take from the inmates may someday help to identify a person from latent prints that they find in a crime scene.

Of course, it’s not always easy to get those prints. People can be uncooperative. They don’t want to be in jail and sometimes they don’t want to be identified so they will say anything to not get fingerprinted and photographed. When this happens, I remember what has worked in the past to get the inmate to cooperate.

If that doesn’t work you have to think quickly and anticipate what the inmate might reply when you are trying to persuade them. One time, I was trying to get a photo from an uncooperative inmate and his head was tilted to one side. I asked him several times to straighten his head, but he wouldn’t do it. So, I asked him to tilt his head a little to the right (his head was tilted to the left). He looked at me and said, “My neck hurts and I can’t move it.” So I said to him, “Could you try and tilt it a little bit to the right?” He said, “Are you calling me a liar?” I said, “No I’m not, I’m just asking” Then he said, “Are you lying to me? Don’t tell me that you don’t lie.” I told him, “I lie all the time. Like if you were to ask me if you look good in red (all inmates wear red outfits) would you like me to tell you ‘yes’ or the truth?” He gave me a mean look for a moment as I was looking at him then he started to laugh and said, “You’re alright.” He straightened his head and I took his picture and continued on with his prints without any trouble.

Joined KCSO: 2002

Educational background: Communications degree, University of Iowa

A career in fingerprints is so much more than a couple of prints and a magnifying glass. On any given day I might be processing with chemicals in a lab, crawling through a crime scene, or using computers to enhance, analyze, and search prints.

This was a complete career change for me. I had previously worked in the carpentry and maritime industries, but this job captured my imagination. The popularity of shows like CSI and just begun to grow, and thought of sitting in a dramatically lit room, pouring over fingerprint cards trying to solve a mystery seemed exciting. While the reality of this type of career may not be quite that cinematic, the idea behind it holds true – and the desire to solve a mystery is just as exciting without fancy lighting, leather jackets, and perfect hair.

The most unique challenge to this job, is the amazingly wide range of areas of which you must have a working knowledge. In order to go into a courtroom and qualify yourself as an expert in this field, you need to be able to speak clearly and professionally about history, biology, statistics, and the scientific theories of identification. It isn’t enough to simply be able to compare fingerprints, you really have to immerse yourself in all aspects of fingerprint identification.

My greatest job satisfaction comes when my work provides information that answers a question that probably couldn’t have been resolved any other way. Whether it’s finding out who someone is, or where they’ve been, fingerprints are often the most conclusive pieces of evidence to an investigator. The first time you meet the victim of a crime, and you personally find that critical piece of the puzzle that allows them to close the door on the question of “who did this to me?” you realize what all those dirty hours crawling around a crime scene are really all about.

Joined KCSO: 1997

Educational background: Bachelor’s degree, with a minor in Criminology at University in Canada

I started my career at the KCSO as a Jail ID technician. I was given on-the-job training and did some self-study, and advanced to a latent print examiner.

This job is challenging and interesting. It’s not just examining prints – there’s also public speaking, photography, imaging, and computer work. You have to be able to deal with sensitive situations, victims, and crime scenes.

It is especially rewarding to be part of a large investigative team, working with detectives and WSP Crime Lab at death investigations. For instance, we responded to a call to ‘collect some papers for evidence’ and found ourselves among thousands of partially burned trivial pursuit game cards and book pages scattered for blocks, in an alley, where there was a body burnt in a recycle bin. What did the cards and pages have to do with the death? Was it a murder or a suicide? How did it happen? Most importantly to us – who was the victim and who else had been there? It’s a great job to be able to assist with answering those questions.

Joined KCSO: 2003

Educational background: Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Science.

Before being hired here, I worked in environments totally unrelated to law enforcement. I was looking for an organization with a consistent, systematic approach to managing the work flow. The fact that KCSO, like any law enforcement agency, is structured much like a military organization, gave me the necessary guidelines and protocol to follow in order to handle any situation that arises. Ironically, working in a structured environment with somewhat strict protocols nurtures my creative side outside of work.

My job entails a great deal of variety and requires frequent, constant change of hats. It requires juggling of disparate tasks and keeping details straight, all the while following standard procedure. The unique challenge is keeping all the plates spinning.

One of the memorable events I’ve experienced while employed with KCSO was the day I had the opportunity to sit in on court testimony from a well-known expert witness for the defense, called in to dispute the science of fingerprints. The defendant was on trial for armed robbery of a jewelry store. I had been asked by the Latent Print Supervisor to take and transcribe the testimony of the exchanges between the famous expert witness and the prosecutor, as well as the exchange between the witness and the defense. My transcription was to be later shared and discussed with the latent print examiner staff. It was fascinating to hear the exchanges and the debate about the science. In the end, the jury found the defendant guilty.