The fingerprint identification battle has been a case-solving mechanism carried out by the police system for many years, aimed at breaking cold cases.

The exact starting time is beyond research, but this tradition has continued over the years.

From the ministries to the provincial departments and down to the city bureaus, fingerprint identification battles are organized more than once each year.

Beyond that down to district and county police departments, Criminal Investigation Teams, or technical appraisal centers, such battles are not held.

On one hand, at lower levels, there are fewer experts, and conducting a fingerprint identification battle would involve just a few people, making it no different from their regular work, thus naturally not becoming a battle.

On the other hand, the grassroots have limited resources, and they can't even solve normal cases, so naturally, less attention is given to cold cases.

The Haizhou City Public Security Bureau organizes a fingerprint identification battle once a year, usually in early February, right before the Spring Festival.

The choice of this time is mainly to select participants for the annual fingerprint identification battle organized by the provincial department in March.

Of course, in the eyes of Yang Sen and Old Bai, the fingerprint identification battle of the Haizhou City Public Security Bureau doesn't mean much.

In the bureau, those who work with fingerprints, both were familiar with them.

Each district or county's Criminal Investigation Team could send out one person per team.

The technical appraisal center could send out two people.

In past years, it was Liu Guodong who went to participate from the Criminal Investigation Team.

Generally speaking, the fingerprint identification battle with the Haizhou City Criminal Investigation Team involves only a dozen or so people.

Without even competing, everyone knows that Liu Guodong's technical level is the highest.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to be the head of Crime Scene Investigation in the Criminal Investigation Team.

However, this year's situation has obviously changed.

Liu Guodong picked up the enamel mug and walked to Lu Chuan's side: "Lu, this year you'll be representing our Criminal Investigation Team in the city's fingerprint identification battle."

"I've already informed Captain Qin."

Lu Chuan nodded; he had no objections to this and was actually quite curious about it.

"Master, what is this fingerprint identification battle all about?"

While in university, Lu Chuan had heard of the fingerprint identification battle, but he didn't know the specifics as he never participated.

Before Liu Guodong could speak, Old Bai chimed in: "There's really nothing mysterious about it, just gathering everyone in a conference room."

"Each person gets a computer, and you work with a cold case fingerprint database to compare."

Yang Sen nodded: "Usually they hang a banner, and the city bureau holds a simple ceremony."

"Go ahead, it's nice; you get good food, good drinks, and good sleep."

Liu Guodong took out a Chunghwa from the table leg, smelled it, and lit it: "The fingerprint identification battle our city bureau holds every year is more symbolic than practical."

"The cold cases in the bureau are all left by our team and various Criminal Investigation Teams, and we've studied them all before the battle."

"If we couldn't solve them normally, we wouldn't solve them during a battle either."

Lu Chuan was puzzled: "So... does the fingerprint identification battle achieve any results?"

"Not exactly, the city bureau will also include some simpler fingerprints, ensuring that the battle yields some results."

Old Bai walked over and patted Lu Chuan's shoulder: "Don't worry, the elderly at the city bureau may not be good at solving cases, but they are excellent at these activities."

...

February 1st, sunny, minus twenty-four degrees.

Today is the coldest day since winter began, and Lu Chuan arrived early in the morning at the Haizhou City Public Security Bureau to report.

The fingerprint identification battle organized by the city bureau is scheduled to start today.

As Yang Sen mentioned, before the fingerprint identification battle began, the bureau organized a simple ceremony.

Vice Director Wang Kai warmly greeted everyone.

"I hope everyone will break through themselves in the coming week and achieve new heights!"

The ceremony was simple, but seeing the vice director present stirred enthusiasm among everyone.

As a grassroots technical detective, it's not easy to get a glimpse of the director or the vice director.

Some people have worked for decades without ever seeing what the director looks like.

Of course, after the ceremony, Wang Kai left, and everyone resumed their usual demeanor.

As they were all from the Haizhou City Public Security Bureau and mostly worked in technical positions, even if several front-line criminal detectives participated, they were all familiar with each other.

"Old Zhang, it's been a long time! The last time we met was in July, right?"

"Brother Wang, let's go have a smoke?"

"Brother Li, thanks for the help on that theft case on Friendship Road. If it weren't for you guys, those bastards would have run away again..."

'Most of the crowd were familiar faces who would regularly run into each other.'

Lu Chuan, alone, didn't have anyone approach to greet him.

However, that didn't mean people didn't know who Lu Chuan was.

The Haizhou City's Criminal Investigation Team is the superior authority over the district and county Criminal Investigation Teams. Lu Chuan's participation as their representative in the fingerprint identification battle indicated he was replacing Liu Guodong.

It's important to realize that with Liu Guodong around, everyone made sure to pay attention to him.

After all, tasks that the grassroots couldn't handle required intervention by the Criminal Investigation Team.

However, Lu Chuan was young, and not many people were familiar with him.

Lu Chuan was glad nobody bothered him; once the ceremony was over, it meant the fingerprint identification battle began.

In the conference room, there were two rows of computers, each marked with a name.

Lu Chuan went to the first computer on the right side, started it up.

This fingerprint identification battle would last for a week, with food and accommodation provided at a hotel designated by the city bureau.

Everyone handed in their phones, had no responsibility for their usual work at their original units, and focused solely on fingerprint comparisons.

This created an atmosphere that couldn't be replicated at their regular workplace.

With seven days dedicated to examining fingerprints, some prints that couldn't be matched before might just find a match in this environment.

It was the same fingerprint comparison system Lu Chuan was familiar with.

But besides that, there was also a battle fingerprint database.

This database had accumulated all the unsolved cases with fingerprint leads gathered over the years by the Haizhou City Public Security Bureau.

Cases included in the fingerprint identification battle were essentially those that could identify a suspect directly through a fingerprint.

So, as long as the detective comparing the fingerprints succeeded within the system, it indicated the case was solved.

What was left was to follow the trail and catch the person directly.

Whether the suspect will be apprehended or not is no longer related to the fingerprint identification battle.

Lu Chuan and his colleagues were responsible for the technical work; they didn't handle the physical part.

In the time it takes to smoke two cigarettes, those who were chit-chatting all returned.

Of course, not everyone went out for a smoke.

No matter where you are, there are always those who prefer solitude.

Lu Chuan glanced once, and there were a few people, like three or five, who after the ceremony just sat down in front of their respective computers, started up, and worked on fingerprints.

The conference room gradually became silent.

Although many knew each other, they didn't work in the same grassroots unit. After some small talk on familiar topics, naturally, they had to begin work.

After all, the fingerprint identification battle is not a tea party, and the colleagues present also had competitive relationships.

Though the Haizhou City Public Security Bureau's fingerprint identification battle isn't large-scale, and not many cases are usually solved in each round, it always yields some results.

From past experiences, most of these results were from cases that occurred from the start of the previous year's battle up to now during the current battle period.

Usually, there are about thirty or forty such cases.

These were the focus for all participants because the old cases, the detectives who had often participated in fingerprint battles had already gone over countless times.

In fact, many of these cases became files precisely because they couldn't solve them.

Therefore, timing is crucial.

The recently occurred cases have a higher probability of fingerprint matches, and whoever seizes the opportunity first can reap the rewards.

Lu Chuan also held high expectations for this fingerprint identification battle.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.