By Deedee Correll, The Associated Press
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) -- Ed Zupancic has a 32-over-32 whorl-over-whorl pattern. It distinguishes him from a good percentage of the population.
That he knows what a whorl-over-whorl pattern is and how to pick one out distinguishes Zupancic from 100 percent of the Teller County sheriff’s deputies. And it is precisely what makes him so valuable to them.
Zupancic, a retired fingerprint expert and former Detroit police officer, lends his expertise for free to the sheriff’s office, which doesn’t have a crime analyst. He has worked on about five cases and helped solve at least one.
“He’s a friend of the department,” Sheriff Kevin Dougherty said.
“At a price you can afford,” added Zupancic, 65.
Many sheriff’s offices rely on volunteers to perform various tasks, from teaching inmates to working as reserve deputies, said George Epp, executive director of County Sheriffs of Colorado and former Boulder County sheriff.
Smaller departments get help where they can, he said.
“It runs the gamut, from relying on (the Colorado Bureau of Investigation) or a nearby larger department,” he said.
After 31 years in law enforcement, including six as commander in the Detroit Police Department, Zupancic had had enough of big cities. In 1997, he and his wife moved to Florissant, a small town southeast of Colorado Springs.
“You get burned out with the compression of the city,” Zupancic said. “Go to Detroit or Denver and drive for 30 minutes, and you’re still in the city.”
But he didn’t want to be away from law enforcement. Soon after he arrived in Florissant, Zupancic introduced himself at the sheriff’s office.
“I’m in the neighborhood,” he said. “Here’s what I’ve got. If I may be of assistance, don’t hesitate to call me.”
When Dougherty became sheriff early this year, he took Zupancic up on his offer. Dougherty hopes Zupancic’s volunteerism will evolve into a program in which people lend any expertise they have to the department.
When it comes to big cases such as homicides, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation sends its technicians to collect evidence. On minor cases such as burglaries, Teller deputies can dust and lift prints themselves, Dougherty said.
Collecting the evidence isn’t the problem. Analyzing it is.
When the sheriff sends evidence to the notoriously backlogged CBI, it can take several months to get back the results.
“That’s where we’ve used Ed, rather than wait,” Dougherty said.
Zupancic recently worked on a motorcycle theft case in which investigators recovered some stolen parts and lifted a print.
“We had a suspect in mind,” Dougherty said.
The suspect had a criminal history, so fingerprints were on file with the National Crime Information Center. Dougherty asked Zupancic to compare the prints. After several minutes of analysis, Zupancic discovered they matched.
“The rest is history,” Dougherty said.
It wasn’t so easy for Zupancic back in 1972, when he was first assigned to the identification unit in Detroit. To his untrained eye, the prints were just a maze of squiggles and lines.
“I had no idea how I was going to function,” he said.
But he learned to read the tiny lines and ridges, which became a road map.
No two people, even twins, have the same arrangement of ridges and patterns. Human fingerprints do not change over time, unless the person has burns or other disfigurements that alter the skin.
A fetus develops fingerprints well before birth and they remain discernible after death. Analysts study prints by examining a certain number of points. Making a match means finding a certain number of the same points.
There’s no set number, “It all depends on what the state will accept,” Zupancic said.
Sometimes work went beyond analyzing lines. Before computer databases could match prints, Zupancic had to rely on his gut feeling when he thought a suspect had given a false name.
Catching someone in the act was rewarding, he said.
“John Wilson is actually Daryl Greenburg, and you find out he’s wanted in Ohio, he’s wanted in Des Moines on a shooting and he’s wanted on escape from prison in California,” Zupancic said.
These days, computers do the cumbersome sifting through millions of prints to find matches. But as long as the sheriff’s office can use a good man, Zupancic plans to keep hanging around.
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On the Net:
County sheriff: www.co.teller.co.us/SheriffsOffice/sheriff.htm