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Article: News: Police to relax rules on prints
- Article from:
- The Sunday Telegraph London
- Article date:
- July 16, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2000 The Sunday Telegraph London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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THE police are to scrap the 16-point "standard of proof" used to
match fingerprints in an attempt to boost conviction rates.
Detectives believe the requirements for fingerprint evidence are
too restrictive.
Experts must find at least 16 points of similarity between a
suspect's fingerprints and a print found at a crime scene before
submitting their findings to a court.
Under reforms to be implemented in October by the Association of
Chief Police Officers, this minimum will be relaxed and prints with
only one or two points of similarity, or partial prints, will be
admissible as evidence.