The fingerprint consultant for the State in the Dole Chadee murder trial, Louis Andrews, 57, still has his first fingerprint kit from nearly 30 years ago. He handles each item as if it were priceless.

Everything in that kit - the fingerprinting powder, ink, the two brushes and the cleaning fluid can still be used today to dust for prints, said Andrews, a crime scene analyst and fingerprints expert.

He bought this kit at age 17, for his first foray into the world of forensic science - the science of solving crimes by piecing together microscopic details and religiously following procedure at a crime scene.

Andrews recalled seeing an advertisement in an issue of the Sunday Guardian, where "The Blue Book of Crime" was being sold by the Institute of Applied Science in Chicago.

He bought the book from the Chicago Institute in 1959 and learned things like fingerprinting, photographing a crime scene, civil and criminal investigation, and firearm identification. He enrolled with the institute the same year, and through correspondence courses, opened the door to the science of fingerprinting.

Andrews entered the Police Training College in 1961, and put his fingerprinting studies on hold. After graduation, he was made station detective at the Rio Claro police station in 1963 and then transferred to the CID division in 1965.

In 1966, he got his diploma in scientific crime detection from the Chicago Institute and was sent to work at the CID's fingerprint bureau. Twenty years later he headed the finger print bureau at criminal records office at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). He left the police service in 1992. He is now Chairman of the Trinidad and Tobago Institute of Forensic Services in Montrose, Chaguanas.

"The question of forensic science was not a hard and fast rule of conducting investigations 25 years ago," Andrews noted. In those days, there was no method applied to gleaning data from a crime scene and often the scene would become contaminated and evidence destroyed.

Now it could mean the difference between proving someone's innocence or guilt, he pointed out.

These days though, Andrews has more than fingerprint kits on his mind. He's single-handedly trying to inject life into the forensic side of crime. To do this, he has set up the Trinidad and Tobago Institute of Forensic Services in Montrose, Chaguanas. And he is also trying to give the crime fighting fraternity and even the business community the edge on beating crime.

"Officers need to be specially trained on how to manage and control a crime scene but they often don't know how," said Andrews, "there is too much at a crime scene that is taken often for granted." He said that what often happens was that a lot of people end up innocently walking all over the crime area, thereby changing its whole configuration.

If a man pumps four bullets into a windscreen, a police officer should be able to tell which bullet entered first and which one entered last, he noted. "It's the way the fractures on the glass form a certain pattern Andrews explained. But there is no one to teach the police these kinds of things, he said.

In the case of rape, for instance, Andrews says, that trace evidence like clothing fibres, semen and other body fluids have to be placed in separate containers, and the area must be cordoned off immediately.

He also noted that crime scene reconstruction often gets neglected. "Too many times investigators are wondering how to piece together the events that led to the crime or accident," noted Andrews.

For the corporate sector, he explains that with forensic training, bank employees will be able to tell if the fingerprint on a deed or will or withdrawal slips was authentic.

Insurance companies, too, will want to know if fires were maliciously or accidentally set - it's the way the area where the fire started is charred differently from the area around it that tells the story, he explained.

As for his attempts to teach the science of seeking out clues at crime scenes, Andrews, has got some interest in his project both locally and abroad. The School of Continuing Studies in Turks and Caicos are interested in having the forensic science courses taught in their law enforcement classes. In T&T, the Maintenance, Training and Security Company (MTS) are looking at his ideas.

During his lectures on "Aspects of Forensic Science" at the UWI School of Continuing Studies to police, prison and security officers, Andrews said he is often told by students that their superior officers have difficulty in understanding this scientific dimension to crime. "It's something that may take a while getting accustomed to," he said.

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