For many decades after fingerprint evidence was first given in an English murder trial in 1905, the fingerprint system varied little except to adjust its collection techniques to keep pace with the gently increasing demand made upon it. Occasional breakthroughs, such as developing marks with iodine fumes, silver nitrate, and ninhydrin, were added as they became available. Much of the research of the last decade focuses on one way a crime scene fingerprint can be made: as a latent or invisible impression which has been made visible by exploiting the nature of the mark itself and the substrate it is on. Research also has been conducted into collection handling techniques. Cases are cited to illustrate the involvement of fingerprints with police investigations.