In all (most?) the TV shows I’ve watched the police don’t have problems handling evidence if they’re wearing gloves. I would think that if somebody was wearing gloves and they touched an object the gloves would probably cause the existing fingerprints to be smudged and less useful to be matched to a criminal. Can anybody tell me if my thinking is valid or not?
Thanks
You must be watching different shows than I do – I see people handling gund carefully and away from the likely-held points, and agents carefully dusting doorknobs and door edges.
I’m no expert, but it does seem as if you could easily smudge fingerprints by careless handling. And the behavior I’ve seen by people playing policemen seems to show them handling potential evidence gingerly.
I’ve never investigated a crime scene but if I did, nothing would be touched by hand, gloved or not, until it had been thorought documented, photgraphed and mapped as to location. If it had to be moved it would be done with tweezers or tongs.