# What happens to children's fingerprints? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 25, 2002, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-childrens-fingerprints/115839 "2002-06-25T06:24:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Data\_Slave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dfb087/32.png) [@Data\_Slave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Data_Slave)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2002, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-childrens-fingerprints/115839/1 "2002-06-25T06:24:51Z")
I am sure you have all seen a community program,usually in conjunction with the local police department to collect children’s fingerprints and a photo to aid in identification should they be kidnapped. Now my question is: are these prints used for anything else? Are they added to any large database of prints somewhere(FBI)? Like if a crime is commited and prints are found,will the ones collected from children be included in a search? ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Nader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Darth\_Nader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Nader)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2002, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-childrens-fingerprints/115839/2 "2002-06-25T07:29:27Z")
Many years ago, as a Boy Scout, I fingerprinted a number of kids. It was part of another Scout’s Eagle project, and we used equipment (ink, rollers, etc) provided by the local PD. EVERYTHING we did was given to the parents, and nothing was handed over to any other authorities. Maybe things are different now, but I doubt it. ---
**Author:** ![reprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2002, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-childrens-fingerprints/115839/3 "2002-06-25T07:38:09Z")
My kids also had fingerprints taken as part of community awareness programmes. These prints weren’t retained by the police. The cards with the prints on (the ONLY copy) were given to the parents (there was a space on the card to attach a passport sized photo). What IS kept here - at least in some states - is the little blotter on which the Guthrie heel prick test is done. A couple of years ago when the police were trying to identify a body, they got permission to access the Guthrie test of the person whose body they thought it was (it was a shark attack victim, from memory) and by comparing the DNA were able to conclusively identify the body. ---
**Author:** ![Data\_Slave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dfb087/32.png) [@Data\_Slave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Data_Slave)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2002, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-childrens-fingerprints/115839/4 "2002-06-25T07:39:32Z")
I didn’t know if the prints were given to the parents or kept by the local PD,or if two copies were made. I’ve only seen this on news casts and in the local paper,never had any first hand experience as to what happened. Nader your explanation is probably right,I am just a privacy nut and the thought of parents unknowingly giving away personal data on their children struck me. Data-get out of my teeth-Slave 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Data\_Slave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dfb087/32.png) [@Data\_Slave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Data_Slave)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2002, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-childrens-fingerprints/115839/5 "2002-06-25T07:48:33Z")
reprise brings up my point with the Guthrie test. While the use he mentions is innocuous,say there were a rapist and permission was given to check the samples form all males born in the area of the appropriate age,creepy. Is it possible for parents to opt out of long term storage? ---
**Author:** ![reprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2002, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-childrens-fingerprints/115839/6 "2002-06-25T07:53:20Z")
In the instance I mentioned (I’m a “she”, BTW), special permission had to be granted for the Guthrie to be accessed. There was very little reason for it to be denied, and allowing access to it enabled the identity of the shark attack victim (the police were pretty sure who he was in the first place, they just needed objective confirmation) to be established beyond doubt. It isn’t unknown here when major crimes happen in small communities for the police to conduct voluntary DNA testing. Oddly, the rapist of an elderly woman in a small community was caught this way when he volunteered to get tested along with the other men in town (bright boy, that one). ---
**Author:** ![Data\_Slave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dfb087/32.png) [@Data\_Slave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Data_Slave)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2002, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-childrens-fingerprints/115839/7 "2002-06-25T08:08:26Z")
Sorry reprise,i was only using “he” as a generic pronoun 🙂 But can parents request that the sample be destroyed or not kept at all after the Guthrie card test is performed? Google is not much help on this. ---
**Author:** ![reprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2002, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-childrens-fingerprints/115839/8 "2002-06-25T08:12:40Z")
[quote] But can parents request that the sample be destroyed or not kept at all after the Guthrie card test is performed?\*\* I suspect not. The test is REQUIRED to be done and AFAIK, the tests are kept by the various state health departments. Who actually “owns” medical records here is often a contentious issue. ---
**Author:** ![reprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2002, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-childrens-fingerprints/115839/9 "2002-06-25T08:13:43Z")
I CAN code, really I can.