NCIC Fingerprint Codes
NCIC Fingerprint Codes
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There are two types of classifications that are widely used, one being the Henry Classification and the other being the NCIC Classification. I am not going to even try to explain Henry Classification since I don't have a jumbo bottle of tylenol's handy and I don't have the server space here to even come close to explaining it. Suffice to say that Henry classification is complicated and is used for the filing of fingerprint cards based on classifications. NCIC classification is somewhat easier to explain and probably will benefit the average officer a lot more to understand. If you have ever noticed on a criminal history return a field named FPC/ and followed by a 20 digit number then you have seen an NCIC classification before. Most all criminal histories and some NCIC wanted hits will have this information. Because of the probability of the wanted hit having an NCIC classification it may be an asset to understand just exactly what it means. A typical NCIC classification might appear as such: FPC/ 19PIPOPM1716PO18PICI Obviously since most of us have 10 fingers and this is a 20 character string we can pretty safely assume that each two characters represent one finger on the person. The numbering always begins with the number 1 position which happens to be the right thumb and then traveling across the right hand to the right little finger which is #5. The thumb of the left hand is #6 and across to the left little finger which is #10. Assuming you now understand the scheme of this character string lets move on to what each type of two character string represents. Anytime you see two numbers together, such as 02, 09, 11, 15 etc then you know that the pattern type is a loop pattern. In the case of the 1st two digits of the code above (which is the right thumb) you should know that the thumb is a loop pattern with a ridge count of 19. You can find more information about ridge counts on the loop definition page. The second finger shown above is the right index finger, which is finger #2, and the code above is PI. This code represents two things, one is the pattern type denoted by the P which means plain whorl and the second character is the tracing of the pattern. In this case it is an inside tracing.
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NCIC Codes for the fingers are as follows:
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