Fingerprint Expert Wayne Reutzel's Work Key to Solving Criminal Cases

Wayne Reutzel’s unassuming office at Northern Regional Police Department -- just a couple of computers and a desk -- give no clue to the quite extraordinary work he does.

Reutzel is a fingerprint analyst and in charge of a system that has solved hundreds of criminal cases in the last 18 months.

Reutzel handles the Automated Fingerprint Identification System, known as AFIS, that provides analysis comparisons of latent fingerprints as well as automated fingerprint searches for approximately 12 departments within Allegheny County.

AFIS uses the information it collects to solve burglaries, thefts, robberies and drug investigations. It does so through its state-of-the-art equipment that allows evidence collected to be processed for fingerprints and then entered into a database where it searches millions of prints in a matter of minutes.

“It searches against all known inked fingerprints in a criminal database,” Reutzel said. “It can search Pennsylvania or nationwide.”

Reutzel explained, however, that finding a fingerprint match is nowhere nearly as easy as crime shows on television would have you believe.

“Unless the police know the identity of a suspect, AFIS doesn’t make an instant match. Often we have to do more detailed work looking at the fingerprint and the database will show us the highest scoring candidates, and the suspect is typically in the top 10.”

Reutzel worked as a fingerprint analyst for the Allegheny County Forensic Lab for more than 34 years before he took an early retirement. But prior to leaving, he made a proposal to District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. Knowing there was a backlog of more than 350 cases at the Allegheny County Forensic Lab, Reutzel suggested it would be helpful to law enforcement agencies in the county to have an additional AFIS.

“I suggested that they move me out of the crime lab and just do AFIS,” he said. “Two months later [Zappala] and the Allegheny County Chiefs of Police Association looked into getting a grant and here we are.”

With a grant to cover the cost of hiring two mobile crime scene investigators and $60,000 for equipment, AFIS has been up and running for a little over a year out of Northern Regional's Pine Township office. Reutzel credits cooperation by a number of organizations for the success of solving crimes through AFIS.

“The District Attorney’s office and the Allegheny County Chiefs of Police Association recognized that many police departments in Allegheny County employed individuals that possessed special talent in forensics,” he said. “The whole idea is a spirit of cooperation with everyone.”

In working together, Reutzel said, they have helped the backlog of cases at the Allegheny County Forensics Lab, and his office sees a two-week turnaround time.  And recently, Reutzel’s office was recognized in assisting with the identification of multiple suspects charged in a multicounty vehicle burglary ring.

“I can tell by the work coming across our desk we’re making a difference,” Reutzel said.