It’s a familiar story: fingerprints play an important role in almost every crime thriller. The science behind it is called dactyloscopy – from the Greek for ‘finger observation’. It is used to analyse fingerprints and palm prints, and to compare them with prints found at the scene of a crime, for example. Why are these biometric characteristics so well suited for identifying people? It's quite simple: first of all, they are unchangeable, remaining the same throughout a person's lifetime. The distinctive structures on the underside of the fingers, known as papillary ridges, develop while the embryo is still in the womb and reform in exactly the same pattern if the surface of the finger is injured. Secondly, they are unique – even identical twins have different fingerprints. This combination of immutability and uniqueness makes fingerprints and palm prints the perfect tool for unambiguously identifying individuals, whether living or dead.
A national police collection of fingerprints – what we would today refer to as a database –was created for this purpose back in 1913. Fingerprint comparison was carried out for decades by experts using a magnifying glass and paper fingerprint sheets. In 1984, a milestone was reached with the introduction of the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS). Since then, advances in technology have been used to process the large number of requests from cantonal and communal police forces, federal authorities and international partners such as Europol and Interpol. They all rely on the quality of the AFIS and fedpol's competence centre in dactyloscopy. Human expertise nevertheless remains indispensable for complex fingerprint comparisons, especially for prints found at crime scenes. AFIS technology makes the process considerably easier, but it is a fingerprint expert who carries out the final analysis and confirms the results.
AFIS and fedpol's competence centre thus form central elements of Switzerland's security landscape – fast, precise and essential, even in crisis situations.
Last modification 10.03.2025
