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Went to L1 to do my fingerprints yesterday evening. It was the last thing I had to do except wait. The lady worked and worked rolling my finger's, and said basically that I was the first person she had seen that doesn't have fingerprint's. All of the lines that make up your print's just aren't there. She said ( I am going to submit them but they are going to get rejected). I ask what happen's then. Her response was they will contact you and you will have to come back have them done again. Then they will match the two sets. She asked what I do with my hands. I told her I work for USPS. She was sure that all the paper cuts over the year's had prolly caused the problem. Anyone ever heard of this? I was happy that all my stuff was done, and all I had left to do was wait. Now I'm prolly looking at a long time before I get my permit. The electronic deal is supposed to have like a 98% first time success rate. Leave it to me to be in the other 2%. Guess I'll just have to sit tight.

There is a hand lotion product that I've seen/heard mentioned
that plumps up those little lines and gives you a better print.
I don't recall the brand but I'm sure someone will.

Also, another thing that helps is to be well hydrated before the
prints are done. Maybe with the combination of both, you'll have
better luck.

One more thing...I know with ink prints, the person taking them
can add a note that reads something to the effect of "best possible
prints taken".

Hope some of this helps..Good luck.

USA1 wrote:There is a hand lotion product that I've seen/heard mentioned
that plumps up those little lines and gives you a better print.
I don't recall the brand but I'm sure someone will.

Also, another thing that helps is to be well hydrated before the
prints are done. Maybe with the combination of both, you'll have
better luck.

One more thing...I know with ink prints, the person taking them
can add a note that reads something to the effect of "best possible
prints taken".

Hope some of this helps..Good luck.

On CSI, they just inject the dessicated fingers with saline solution before taking the prints!

sjfcontrol wrote:

USA1 wrote:There is a hand lotion product that I've seen/heard mentioned
that plumps up those little lines and gives you a better print.
I don't recall the brand but I'm sure someone will.

Also, another thing that helps is to be well hydrated before the
prints are done. Maybe with the combination of both, you'll have
better luck.

One more thing...I know with ink prints, the person taking them
can add a note that reads something to the effect of "best possible
prints taken".

Hope some of this helps..Good luck.

On CSI, they just inject the dessicated fingers with saline solution before taking the prints!

We can try that too!

Spiderman15, if all that doesn't work, you can always become a professional safe cracker.

Very interesting about the saline solution. Just wonder if the finger's is the only place that would work. I am not scared of needles. So is the next step to just wait on DPS to reject them. Do you have any idea how long before I will be notified? Prolly just added a whole lot of time to my wait.

Corn Husker's lotion is the stuff you need. Get it at Walmart. If you can't raise prints with that, then you don't have prints to raise.

Crossfire wrote:Corn Husker's lotion is the stuff you need. Get it at Walmart. If you can't raise prints with that, then you don't have prints to raise.

That's it!
For some reason I was thinking Corn "shuckers" but that just didn't sound right.

Estimates vary, but about .5%-2% of the population do not have "usable" fingerprints. Sometimes it is because of your job (masonry work is a big one) and sometimes it is just genetic. However, you do have some distinguishing features on your fingers, guaranteed. You just don't have the normal patterns of ridges it is expecting. One of the problems with electronic collection systems is that they will reject anything without ridges, because the computerized matching requires those ridges. If you were able to collect with ink, it would be just fine, although you still couldn't be matched in an electronic system.

I used to work in Iraq collecting prints, and we had lots of people with terrible prints there. The thing that worked the best was lotion, as some posters have already mentioned. Also make sure your hands are as clean as they can be before you go in. For the "regular" people, if your prints are kind of faint, you can just run your fingers through your hair -- that will usually collect enough oil to make them stand out. That won't help much if you don't have usable prints, though.

It is interesting that they are giving you an option to just match two sets of prints. I have no idea what that really accomplishes.

As an aside, there are some new sensors on the horizon that will capture subcutaneous fingerprints. Those can be used through gloves, and work even if your fingers are all messed up.

I'm surprised they don't want DNA these days.

USA1 wrote:I'm surprised they don't want DNA these days.

DNA tests are about $100 each. However, DNA is much more effective in a forensics application, because it is easy to leave DNA at a crime scene.

For identification, which is what the CHL check is all about, there is nothing that can beat fingerprints for accuracy and low-cost. With a set of 10-prints, the chance for false match or false non-match is infinitesimal.

As an aside, does anyone know whether the CHL prints are retained, either by the state or by the FBI? I couldn't find out anything about it online. For teachers, the check is done and then the prints are deleted. I was wondering if CHL prints are treated the same way. For all I know, they are checked against every latent from a crime scene.

Are they retained? Absolutely!

AlexKilpatrick wrote:As an aside, does anyone know whether the CHL prints are retained, either by the state or by the FBI? I couldn't find out anything about it online. For teachers, the check is done and then the prints are deleted. I was wondering if CHL prints are treated the same way. For all I know, they are checked against every latent from a crime scene.

By law, the FBI is not supposed to retain the fingerprints.

Ok, I'm not clear on something. Are the fingerprints used for the initial ID verification or to keep on record for future ID verification or even matching prints taken from a crime scene?

Many people have no previous prints on file at the time of applying for a CHL.

USA1 wrote:Ok, I'm not clear on something. Are the fingerprints used for the initial ID verification or to keep on record for future ID verification or even matching prints taken from a crime scene?

Many people have no previous prints on file at the time of applying for a CHL.

They are not supposed to be used for matching crime scenes. That is why they are supposed to be destroyed.

WildBill wrote:

USA1 wrote:Ok, I'm not clear on something. Are the fingerprints used for the initial ID verification or to keep on record for future ID verification or even matching prints taken from a crime scene?

Many people have no previous prints on file at the time of applying for a CHL.

They are not supposed to be used for matching crime scenes. That is why they are supposed to be destroyed.

That's what I understand, too (as least as far as the FBI is concerned). Apparently, DPS is saving them to reuse when you renew. That does not necessarily mean they are used for comparison when unknown prints are found at a crime scene.