Classification Henry with FBI Extension, NCIC, and IAFIS
Mark Hawthorne · 2017
As with any method of classification, the purpose of classifying fingerprints is to establish a set protocol to utilize for searching, filing, and comparison purposes. This protocol provides an orderly method with which to go from the general to the specific. As an example, how would one begin to search for a fingerprint pattern if that pattern has not been cataloged? Questions would certainly arise: What type of pattern are we trying to locate? Is the pattern a loop, whorl, or arch? Is there a specific flow to the pattern? If the pattern is a loop, is it a large or small count loop flowing to the left or to the right? If the pattern is a whorl, does it have an outer, inner, or meet trace value? Some of these basic questions give us direction to understand the need to have a method by which to search.