Look for trace evidence, such as fingerprints, hairs, fibers, or shoe impressions, using alternative light sources when necessary.

“Look for trace evidence, such as fingerprints, hairs, fibers, or shoe impressions, using alternative light sources when necessary.” is a core task performed by Police Identification and Records Officers. Among the occupation's 15 rated tasks, workers place it 11th by importance (#5 most important). About 84% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Investigate criminal or legal matters. in Getting Information

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E2. Exposure with tools — software built on top of a language model (not the model alone) could cut the time by at least half.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.50. Automation potential label: T0.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Photograph crime or accident scenes for evidence records. · importance 4.6
• Maintain records of evidence and write and review reports. · importance 4.5
• Submit evidence to supervisors, crime labs, or court officials for legal proceedings. · importance 4.4
• Testify in court and present evidence. · importance 4.4
• Identify, compare, classify, and file fingerprints, using systems such as Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) or the Henry Classification System. · importance 4.3
• Dust selected areas of crime scene and lift latent fingerprints, adhering to proper preservation procedures. · importance 4.3
• Analyze and process evidence at crime scenes, during autopsies, or in the laboratory, wearing protective equipment and using powders and chemicals. · importance 4.2
• Package, store and retrieve evidence. · importance 4.2
• Process film and prints from crime or accident scenes. · importance 4.1
• Perform emergency work during off-hours. · importance 3.9
• Interview victims, witnesses, suspects, and other law enforcement personnel. · importance 3.8
• Serve as technical advisor and coordinate with other law enforcement workers or legal personnel to exchange information on crime scene collection activities. · importance 3.7
• Create sketches and diagrams, by hand or computer software, to depict crime scenes. · importance 3.6
• Coordinate or conduct instructional classes or in-services, such as citizen police academy classes and crime scene training for other officers. · importance 3.4

See all tasks on the Police Identification and Records Officers page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-2123,
  title  = {Look for trace evidence, such as fingerprints, hairs, fibers, or shoe impressions, using alternative light sources when necessary.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-2123}
}