The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Latent Print Unit is staffed by three latent print examiners  and one trainee who play a vital role in the investigation, identification, and conviction of criminal offenders.  The LPU receives thousands of items of evidence each year that are processed for latent fingerprints.  The examiners use physical and chemical processes to develop and enhance the prints.  Once a print is developed the examiner must evaluate it to determine if it is suitable for identification by the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS).  Manual identifications are also performed on partial prints, palm prints and footprints.

Thousands of individual prints are identified each year by the LPU.  For over 100 years police agencies have used fingerprints as a viable means of identification.  Fingerprints do not change over a person's lifetime, and they are unique to each individual.  

For more about fingerprints and latent print identification, go to www.fdiai.org, www.aafs.org, www.theiai.org or,

Contact Us:

Jacksonville Sheriff's Office

Latent Print Unit

711 N. Liberty St.

Jacksonville, Florida 32202

(904) 630-2974