International experts yesterday reported "significant progress" by the Scottish Police Services Authority (SPSA) in driving forward its fingerprint services.
The Fingerprint Action Plan for Excellence was launched two years ago to take stock of progress made in recent years and consider further action needed to ensure its integration with the new SPSA Forensic Services - an objective achieved in April 2007.
Former police officer Shirley McKie was wrongly accused of leaving her fingerprint at a murder scene. She received a £750,000 payout from the Scottish Executive in 2006 after the misidentification by experts at the Scottish Criminal Record Office, now under the wing of the SPSA.
Three leading fingerprint experts from London, the USA, and the Netherlands, along with two human resource specialists from international corporations, assisted in developing and implementing improvements.
Among them was Bruce Grant, head of counter- terrorism forensic services at the Metropolitan Police, who said: "I know I speak on behalf of my colleagues when I say we have been astonished, delighted and somewhat envious by the significant progress achieved in a relatively short period of time through excellent leadership, professionalism, skill, hard work and a determination to improve."
Objectives achieved include the introduction across Scotland of Ident1, an automated fingerprint system which represents the amalgamation of finger print and, for the first time, palmprint data into a single database.