This chapter commences with a brief history of the use of bare footprints in identification – in areas in which several disciplines can have involvement – a competent technician can perform some of these tasks as well as undertake an initial assessment to determine whether the evidence is of adequate quality to proceed further. There are times, however, when it may be desirable for this entire process to be lead specifically by the forensic podiatrist. Methods of collecting exemplar prints are presented along with variations of these methods and comparison of these approaches. The assessment of bare footprints is also considered with note being made of various features of these prints that may be of interest to the forensic podiatrist. Some situations that could compromise the quality of bare footprints are also presented.
