Eli5: Does hastily swiping off fingerprints from steering wheels, doorhandles, etc. actually prove to be effective?

Question

I see this in various shows and movies, and it always leaves me wondering if it’s actually gonna do them any good in not getting tracked down.

In: 297

Answer 1

In the modern world, the most important trace you leave is DNA – especially hair.

But to answer your question – it depends a lot on the surface, the technology used to recover those fingerprints and how “hastily” actually they were wiped. Sometimes you need just a small fraction of a fingerprint to identify a person.

Thus said, fingerprints have largely been replaced by DNA.