Application of forensic light sources at the crime scene

An interest in the forensic application of lasers was initiated in 1977 when Dalrymple and coworkers reported on the detection of untreated latent fingerprints using photoluminescence techniques (Dalrymple etal., 1997). The development of high-intensity filtered lamps, as more versatile, cost-effective alternatives to the laser, was subsequently pursued in the early 1980s in Australia, Great Britain and Canada. A non-laser FLS is sometimes referred to as an ‘alternate light source’ (or ALS).