Dubai Police intern introduces new method to identify planted fingerprints at crime scenes

An intern at Dubai Police has come up with a new method to identify fingerprints planted at crime scenes by criminals, or those with an ulterior motive, to turn the needle of suspicion on innocent people.

Sara Abdulla Amin Mohammed, an Emirati biotechnology intern from Sharjah University has introduced promising research results on a new methodology to aid forensic experts in distinguishing original fingerprints from planted ones at crime scenes.

Working under the Dubai Police Internship Programme, she conducted research on the use of tapes in planting fingerprints and identified signs and marks that forensic experts can detect and recognise during analysis.

She said planted fingerprints using tapes leaves behind various signs and tape residue that are not present in original fingerprinting. “During our experiment, we stimulated crime scenes with planted fingerprints to examine, compare, and contrast evidence and develop a methodology to help police spot deliberately planted fingerprints.”

Lieutenant Mohammed Thani Al Marri, assistance expert at the Forensics Department, said analysing fingerprints left at the scene of a crime is one of the most critical parts of forensic analysis, and has been used in criminal investigations as a mean of identification for centuries.

“Although we’ve never encountered criminal cases where fingerprints were planted here in the UAE, such incidents have been reported in other countries in which fingerprints were used to condemn innocent people with crimes they did not commit.”

Al Marri added, “Our intern’s research derived its value from this possibility.”

The intern presented her research findings to local and international experts during one of the sessions of the World Police Summit that took place from March 13-16 at Expo 2020 Dubai.