Criminal Justice (As Taught By A Criminal) - Period 3 - Monday 01/28

[mouthy-merc.livejournal.com]

At the front of the class today was a table. The table was pretty ordinary and probably folded down and really wasn't the focus.

What was on table was the important thing.

Like squirrel hair brushes-- (Shh, don't let the squirrels know what they're made of!) --talcum powder, cocoa power and cellophane tape.

"Today we're going to fine out just how not easy it is to dust for prints. Seriously? They're so very easy to screw up and not everything leaves a print. There needs to be enough oil on your hands for them to be left, they can be smudged, on the wrong surface, botched up while dusting... The list goes on and on. So don't let them darn TV shows fool you with the ease of which they recover those fingerprints at the last minute to put the bad guy in jail."

He nodded seriously.

"They lie."

He passed out the all important handouts.

1
Step One
Identify the surface area that you want to dust for fingerprints. Fingers are coated with perspiration and oil. When fingers touch any relatively smooth surface, the friction releases the oil from between the ridges and a print is left.
2
Step Two
Pour a small amount of powder on a piece of paper. Use a powder whose color contrasts with the surface color. You can try a white powder talcum powder on a dark surface and a black powder cocoa powder on a light surface.
3
Step Three
Shake the brush so the bristles spread apart.
4
Step Four
Dip the tip of the brush in the powder, and then gently tap the brush's handle to remove excess powder.
5
Step Five
Run the brush's bristles lightly over the powdered surface in short and quick strokes.
6
Step Six
Unroll the cellophane tape and gently press it on top of the print.
7
Step Seven
Pull the tape away from the print in one quick and fluid motion, and apply the tape with the print attached to a piece of paper.

"Now you all have fun with these and please don't try to frame any classmates for crimes they didn't commit so they have to blame a one armed student."

Comments

Re: Dust for prints!

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"Yeah." Jen's tone went a bit flat. "It's great, all right. All automated and hands-off and completely soulless . . ."

Re: Dust for prints!

[misshargrove.livejournal.com]

Annette looked over at her sharply, her eyes kind. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound obtuse, if I did." She unwrapped her cellophane and pressed it flat around the mug to pick up her prints. "Do you like it here, Jen? Fandom so far?"

Re: Dust for prints!

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

"No, it's not your fault," Jen said quickly, pressing her fingers to a piece of birch-shaded laminate board briefly, to see what kind of prints she'd get from it. "Everybody thinks of the future as something amazing, and it is . . . but compared with the past -- sorry, this time period -- it loses a little of the luster."

She dusted a fine layer of cocoa powder over the board, frowning as it only picked up smudged fragments of fingerprints here and there, and added with just a touch of fierceness underlying the words, "I love it here. I wouldn't go back to 3000 if I didn't have to."

Re: Dust for prints!

[misshargrove.livejournal.com]

"It's hard for me to comprehend so far into the future. I'm just a normal girl, from a normal time period. Normal to me anyway. There is no magic, no witches or demons. Just... normalcy..." Annette pulled back the cellophane quickly and stuck it to a piece of paper. Holding it up, she smiled at being able to see her prints.

"Here, there is everthing it seems like and I can lose myself in the excitement of others lives. Childish, maybe, but I can't help it. I often ask before I think." She glanced at Jen, smiling. "I would stay here too if I could. I graduate this year and then for me this place is over."

Re: Dust for prints!

[time-flyer-5.livejournal.com]

Jen did her best to lift the prints she'd made, mount the tape on a piece of paper (if Time Force, stranded in 2001, had ever had to take fingerprints she suspected they'd do it like this way because hi, low budget), and try to pick out one or two that were at least identifiable.

"I felt like that about the twenty-first century when I first arrived," she offered. "I'd seen some movies, read things in books and papers and essays, but actually being there . . ."

[[Aieeeeeeeeee OMG I fell asleep ALL NIGHT.]]