Criminal investigators are tasked with solving the crime and finding the suspect responsible. Sometimes crime is very difficult to solve, but with the right evidence and tools, investigations can be responded to a little easier. The use of fingerprints is one of the main tools used at crime scenes. Investigators find them at the crime scene and analyze them in the laboratory to determine who the prints belong to. Each person has an individual fingerprint, which is why this is a very useful test. Sir Francis Galton discovered that prints could be classified into different types and different groups. Fingerprint searches from decades earlier shaped how investigators identify suspects and victims. The use of fingerprints dates back to the 1800s. Sir William Herschel used fingerprints as signatures on civil contracts, before they were deemed useful in committing crimes (History of Fingerprints Timeline, 2012). A British surgeon, Dr. Henry Faulds, wrote about the use of fingerprints for personal identification. He first looked at the imprints on the clay pottery and studied the ridges and patterns they had created in the clay. In 1891, Juan Vucetich suggested that we begin fingerprinting criminals to keep their footprints on record. The following year Vucetich identified the footprint of a woman who had killed her two children. Investigators found his fingerprint and were able to correctly match his identity. Charles Darwin's cousin, Sir Francis Galton, wrote and published the first book on fingerprints. He wrote about how each individual has a unique fingerprint based on the specific traits of each fingerprint (History of Fingerprints, 2012). The popularity of fingerprinting grew dramatically in the United States in the early 1900s. Police departments and the FBI began using... the medium of paper......A. Mary, Ruth M. Robin. (2009). Latent fingerprints: a perspective on the state of the science. Forensic Science Communications. 11.4.Gurdoglanyan, Diana (2001). Fingerprints used in forensic investigations. Retrieved November 25, 2013, from http://www.bxscience.edu/publications/forensics../articles/fingerprinting/r-fing01.htm.Judson, Olivia. (2008). Sticky Fingers: Fingerprints are one of the oldest biometric measures of identity. What do we actually know about them? Natural history. 117.10. p16.Radford, Dean. (2011). Fingerprints lead to an arrest in 1978 for a murder at a mobile park near Renton. Retrieved December 14, 2013, from http://www.rentonreporter.com/news/130465243.html.The FBI: Federal Bureau of Investigation. Integrated automated fingerprint identification system. Retrieved December 14, 2013 http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/fingerprints_biometrics/iafis.