A Close- Up Look At People Who Matter : Fingerprinting Duties Move to Civilians

North Hollywood police officers Ron Troncone and Ray Wicks start the day armed with a list of crime scenes, some small brushes and three jars of powder. They are the LAPD’s Picassos of fingerprinting.

But they will soon be turning over their palettes to civilians, and they aren’t happy about it.

Reminiscent of criticism against the crime lab for allegedly mishandling blood samples in the O.J. Simpson double-murder trial, the LAPD fingerprint operation is in trouble. At Parker Center, where all fingerprints are sent for analysis and matching, a perpetual backlog of more than 2,000 print cards mounts on top of an old file cabinet, while frustrated forensic experts struggle to catch up.

“We need more trained personnel, not only to submit prints, but also to respond to crime scenes,” says David Garcia, a senior forensic print specialist.

“Right now we can only respond to 12% of the crime scenes and that’s not good enough.”

That’s where Troncone and Wicks come in.

Or more accurately, go out.

In 1986, they were handpicked by the brass to train about 85 police officers and establish a specialized fingerprinting unit, known as the Area Latent Print Officers unit, or ALPO. In their heyday, two ALPOs were stationed in each of the LAPD’s 18 divisions.

Under Troncone and Wicks, North Hollywood became the leader in catching suspects through fingerprints for six consecutive years, and the LAPD became known nationally as the premier police force in fingerprint gathering.

“When we first started out, we were really tight,” remembers Troncone, gazing stone-faced at the ALPO sign on his door.

“We held meetings and traded information. We were like a real family.”

That was then. Today, ALPOs are being phased out, replaced by civilian specialists in a move police executives say is aimed at taking cops off fingerprint duty to get them back on the streets.

“I’m not sure it’s a good idea to replace sworn officers with civilians,” said Troncone, a 27-year officer. “As police officers, we sat right in the station and worked directly for the detectives and felt pressured to produce results.

“Because of our patrol experience, ALPOs were able to investigate crime scenes thoroughly,” said Wicks. “It was a team effort. I’m not sure the civilian unit will be able to replicate that feeling.”

Wendell Clements, the civilian chief of the LAPD’s latent fingerprint section, disagrees.

ALPO teams didn’t work out, he says. Drafted out of patrol cars and handed fingerprint kits, the officers did sloppy work in many cases, he says.

“Police should be doing police work. We need specialists who are highly trained to do this work and be available 24 hours a day,” says Clements, who oversees 32 civilian print specialists based at Parker Center who will eventually replace all the ALPOs.

“With our experts we will have better quality prints and be more effective in solving crimes.”

Another factor is money. Civilian specialists are cheaper than sworn officers.

Both sides agree on one point: Fingerprint evidence is crucial.

“We can’t allow this part of police investigation to deteriorate,” said Troncone. “Whether it’s civilians or officers, more emphasis should be placed on prints. We can put money into police helicopters and canine units, but evidence is what solves crimes.”