Law enforcement: Sleuthing by computer: Forensic computer techniques help law-enforcement agencies identify suspects and organize evidence

Computers, used for years by law-enforcement agencies to keep track of crime statistics, are moving into new routine roles as important aids in solving crimes. Using computerized fingerprint files, police officers in some states can now get positive identification and the criminal record of a suspect within a few hours or arrest. Electronic data banks are providing fast identification of thousands of substances by their spectroscopic “fingerprints,” and prosecutors are beginning to use computers to correlate masses of evidence in complex cases so they can obtain instant briefings in preparing to cross-examine witnesses. In part, computers are now doing previously manual or partly automated tasks, such as fingerprint-file searching, faster and more accurately than could be done by humans.