In law enforcement, operational practice has shown that fingerprint patterns have remained extremely stable, so much so that it has been basically taken for granted that fingerprint patterns don’t change over time.
Research was conducted at Michigan State University (MSU) to test whether the traditional assumption was true. MSU Professor Anil Jain and former Ph.D. student Soweon Yoon analyzed the fingerprint records of 15,597 subjects apprehended by the Michigan State Police multiple times over a time span varying from 5 to 12 years.
The results are in. Per Profession Jain, “We have now determined, with multilevel statistical modeling, that fingerprint recognition accuracy remains stable over time.”
Although fingerprints have been used by law enforcement and forensic experts to identify people for over 100 years, until now there has been little scientific research to support the accuracy of fingerprinting, leading to repeated court challenges over the years. It is good that a long held assumption has been tested, and even better, in this case, that the research supports many years of practical experience.
Stuck On You: Research Shows Fingerprint Accuracy Stays The Same Over Time
By Kim Ward, Anil Jain, June 29, 2015, MSU Today | Science & Technology
Research article “Longitudinal study of fingerprint recognition”
By Soweon Yoona and Anil K. Jain, pdf of the original article from the July 14, 2015 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
New research proves that fingerprint accuracy remains unchanged over time
By Justin Lee, June 30, 2015, for BiometricUpdate.com
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