How long does it take for a police investigation to be solved with fingerprints?

Question

when our money was stolen from our purses they "SAID" they found a fingerprint. if this is true how long will it take to resolve, but the thing is they didn't take no fingerprints from any of the employees. What will happen and how long to match fingerprints. will they find ther person or is this just a lost case.

also we all touched each other money evelopes in a panic so ths won't help will it

the ploice said they found a fingerprint on a coworkers phone who said there phone was by there money

Answer 1

Ok, they should have found alot of fingerprints on the envelope the money was in ( remember that from previous post) they person who handed you the envelope, the person who put the envelope in a drawer, your fingerprint.

First unless they took your fingerprints they won't know that the print is not yours. ( it is not valid police investigation not to take as a base the fingerprints of anyone that should have touched the money,

If they merely find a fingerprint on the outside of your purse, it only proves someone touched the outside of the purse, not enough evidence to do anything with ( really is not)

If the fingerprint matches someone in the system, if they have thier own machine to match prints, they will have a match in a day or two, if they send it off to the state crime lab or FBi it will take a month or two to get results back.

I would say it is a lost case and they are not really doing anything with the fingerprint.

Answer 2

Our department has an AFIS (Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems). If the print is good and, as others have said, the print is on file, it should take under 30 minutes for a match. Just because they found a print does not mean that it belongs to the suspect or that the print is usable. Continue working with the investigator. Maybe he or she has access to a polygraph (lie detector) which helps in narrowing an investigation. Chances are pretty good that whoever stole the money already has a criminal record. BTW how much was stolen? In our state, if over $300 was taken, it becomes a felony. Investigators have stats too. They like to clear as many cases as possible. Do not give up hope, but keep your investigator informed on new information.

Answer 3

When fingerprints are taken, they put it into the national computer base & hope for a hit. Unless a person has been arrested before, there will not be a match.

I worked in a meat packing plant where alot of money was missing for several months. With the company's permission, we set up a sting. We went to the police station & explained the situation. They gave us invisible ink & we 'marked' some change that had been frequently dipped into by the thief. We are talking about the ladies locker room.

We kept track of the change over a week-long period. Finally, after about three days, someone had taken some change. We notified the police who came to the plant. As each female came into the locker room, they had to wash their hands. The water activated the invisible ink, making the hands blue. We caught the thief & she was poresecuted. Why not try that? If this happened at work and you suspect someone in the workplace, it could work for you as well. No one likes a thief. Employers included. Talk to the big guy. Is $$ still missing? If so, keep your $$ in your pocket & lock your purse in the car. Or...set up a sting. With permission, of course. It works.

Answer 4

It depends on what was done with the fingerprints lifted. There is a new fingerprint technology called "livescan" where fingerprints can be uploaded to the fbi instantly, rather than using the old fashioned way of putting them on cards and sending them off through the mail, and sitting on someone's desk waiting to be processed.

Anyone who has ever been fingerprinted has fingerprints on file with the fbi. This includes criminals, government officials, law enforcement, and anyone else who has ever had their fingerprints taken. As such, if there is a record with the fbi, they will eventually be found.

Bottom line..it just depends on the mode of transmission to the fbi used by your law enforcement agency.

Answer 5

Unless the person has previously been "fingerprinted" there is no hope at all of matching a print. It looks so easy on TV, but in the real world the police don't perform the procedure of "dusting for prints" very often. Think of how long it took the police to arrive when you first reported it. Did you write the report info sheet out, or did the police? I feel sorry for your loss, but I don't think there is a great deal of hope that there will be a "Batman", "Shadow" or "Columbo" on your local police force that could find anything even if the thief left their name and address along with their prints.
It is sad that we have to protect ourselves from dishonest people by keeping everything we own under lock and key.

Sorry to say, but it is a lost case.

Answer 6

hmmmmm that seems a bit odd they didn't take the employees fingerprints I would wait about a week or two then check back with the PD and see if they are making any progress with the case.....sorry to hear that about your money though to prevent this from happening if my purse is not within reach I usually carry my money and important cards in my pockets I like the jeans you can find with button flap pockets or zippered pockets so I don't have to worry about anything falling out of them

Answer 7

If the person has an arrest record it will still take awhile and since they didn't fingerprint anyone at work, it may never be resolved unless they go back and do it.

Answer 8

It depends who processes the fingerprints. If it is in house it will be quicker than if the send it off.

Answer 9

A day to never. It all depends on how good the prints were, and whether the prints could be linked to anyone.