Evanston police say fingerprints recovered from a crime scene 20 months ago led to the arrest of a youth on burglary charges last weekend.
Police Cmdr. Jay Parrott says a police evidence technician recovered the prints from the scene of a burglary in the 1200 block of Dewey Avenue in May 2010.
They were submitted to the state police Automated Fingerprint Identification System, which eventually came back with a match — leading to the arrest by detectives of the male suspect.
The suspect was 16 years old at the time of the incident and has been charged as a juvenile with residential burglary.
Why did it take 20 months?
What is the explanation for the lag time in discovering the criminal?
Time for fingerprint match
Cmdr. Parrott says …
The Illinois State Police Crime Lab handles print comparisons for hundreds of police agencies which lead to thousands of print requests. The cases are then prioritized by crime type, Homicide cases taking top priority. These two factors contribute to the lengthy delay in fingerprint comparisons being received in a burglary case.
— Bill
Long time to match prints
Bill,
Thanks for clearing that up. I always thought that prints were sent to the FBI where they process thousands of prints every day. Maybe, I watch too much TV or maybe the state wants to make sure they haven't matched one of their favorite politicians.
Congrats to the Evanston police department, a first rate organization.
thanks to evanston police
hello
it was our house that was broken into. We're very grateful to Evanston Police for their hard work.
It didn't take 20 months to connect the prints. He was arrested in a totally different crime and it took a day or two for the prints to make a match (the detective in charge of case has been very kind about calling me to keep us up to date)
best
MG
Watching TV corrodes our thinking
Watching TV makes us think that all criminals, while generally not that bright, leave a trail of evidence as clear as a bell when they commit crimes. TV also makes us think prints come back in like 15 minutes.
It's possible that many criminals are caught well before print evidence is even involved but in this case the kid just got a few extra months of freedom before the hammer came down.