Double Loop Podcast

Glenn and Eric first take a long detour to discuss their initial reactions to the newest Star Wars movie (of course), but then talk about a fingerprint identification error involving Melissa Neylon, Inyo County, CA, and Indiana. It's still a little unclear how the fingerprint error took place.

Glenn and Eric throw out a number of topics including how the podcast helps to solve crime and discussions from OSAC meetings.

Eric and Glenn each discuss a paper that they were involved with recently. Eric and the IAI Subcommittee on Probability Modeling published a short article in the ID News summarizing current and future uses of probabilities in fingerprints. Glenn talks about a recent paper on a proteomic approach for identifying blood.

Glenn and Eric talk about a new document released by the Defense Forensic Science Center. That agency has decided to forego using the Identification term when reporting the association of a latent print to a known exemplar. Listen through the episode to hear their new language and Glenn and Eric's thoughts on this new direction.

Glenn and Eric bring up a listener email asking how many candidates examiners should request during AFIS searches. And further, are examiners prepared to compare the increasing number of close non-matches that could arise from better matchers and longer candidate lists. Also, automatically reversing ninhydrin prints.

Eric and Glenn complete their series on the Madrid Bombing Fingerprint Error from the FBI. Even more than 10 years after the error was revealed, there are still very interesting things to learn about this error that led to so many changes and improvements in the latent fingerprint comparison field.

Glenn and Eric continue through the timeline of the Madrid Error or the Brandon Mayfield erroneous fingerprint identification. The guys learn all sorts of new things from the full OIG report that sometimes reveal a new understanding and sometimes contradict the commonly held beliefs of the public and the experts.

Glenn and Eric begin a 3-part review of the full report from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) on the Madrid Bombing or Brandon Mayfield error from the FBI. This episode starts with a general overview and begins looking at the timeline, including some common misconceptions and inaccuracies that have been taught in fingerprint training classes.

Eric tells Glenn about his recent Arizona Treasure Hunt. The guys then get into a discussion on latent print processing and photography. Do you take photos after each step? After the last step? Only when the latent is better than the previous step? Some other alternative? Solve the puzzle and write in with your own stories about when you process or what crazy requirements your lab has for digital photographs.

Eric starts this episode by doing a short interview with Alice Maceo about her class and some recent adventures. Glenn and Eric then discuss an email asking about setting a point threshold for sufficiency in identifications.