FAMOUS CANADIANS:
BRIAN DALRYMPLE
• Brian E. Dalrymple was born in Toronto in 1947. He got his baccalaureate in 1970 from Ontario College of Art. In 1972 Dalrymple joined the Forensic Identification Services of the Ontario Provincial Police as a forensic analyst, beginning a 28-year career with the agency. • In 1977 he began collaborating with a couple guys at the Xerox Research Centre named Duff and Menzel, experimenting with lasers. It bothered them that every time they turned the lasers on, the laser beam would illuminate every single fingerprint in the area, fouling up their experiments. Finally someone suggested that maybe this discovery could be useful in crime detection. • Fine-tuning their discovery, the team found that shining an argon ion laser on latent fingerprints would cause them to fluorescence, making them highly visible. The laser light bounces off the human fat and perspiration in the fingerprint which glow fluorescent yellow. The laser beam was a non-destructive method that also allowed the more traditional methods of fingerprint identification to proceed normally. • Additionally, they found that the goggles that all laser operators are required to wear while working with a laser beam effectively blocked certain wavelengths of light, which made the fingerprint stand out even more. Further research by Dalrymple showed that if a fingerprint were stained with particular chemicals, it would cause an even greater degree of fluorescence when the laser light was beamed upon it. Together, these developments proved to be so effective that fingerprints that were otherwise invisible using standard methods could now easily be revealed using these techniques.
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• The very first fingerprint identified and utilized in a criminal case using this technology was located on the sticky side of a piece of black electrical tape in a drug case. This was the beginning of a revolution in the forensic identification field. • Today, portable lasers are sometimes taken to crime scenes to help with fingerprint evidence. This technology is now in global use and has provided crucial evidence in hundreds of major investigations. • As a result of his efforts, the Ontario Provincial Police became the first police agency in the world to be operational in this technology. After another decade of research, Dalrymple perfected the art of applying computer enhancement technology to sharpen images, once again placing the Ontario Provincial Police as Canadian leaders in forensic science. • In 1991, as Associate Section Head, he introduced the first Computer Evidence System to Canada, and became the first Canadian to offer expert advice in this technology. He was promoted to Manager of Forensic Identification Services in 1992. • He perfected methods on examining murder victims for fingerprints left on their skin. • Brian Dalrymple retired from the Ontario Provincial Police in 1999 and now runs a private firm dedicated to consultation and training in identification services. He specializes not only in fingerprints, but also in shoe prints, foot prints, and forensic photography, helping solve homicides, drug crimes, fraud, and deter organized crime. • Brian Dalrymple is the author of numerous publications and the recipient of several prestigious awards. Without his work, many a criminal would still be roaming the streets.
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