Ashbaugh, David Robinson

3/11/1946–
CANADIAN
FORENSIC SPECIALIST, POLICE OFFICER

David R. Ashbaugh has spent his career in the fields of law enforcement and forensic science , working as a sergeant and forensic identification specialist in Canada. He has focused his research and expertise on the science of ridgeology, a term Ashbaugh coined in 1982. He has written, lectured, and consulted extensively on ridgeology, and wrote a fundamental text on the subject, Quantitative-Qualitative Friction Ridge Analysis.

For more than thirty years, Ashbaugh has worked in law enforcement, most recently as a staff sergeant for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the detachment commander in Hope, British Columbia. In addition, he has worked for more than twenty years as a certified forensic identification specialist. Over these years, Ashbaugh has conducted extensive research on the science behind friction ridge identification. As a result, he is considered an expert in the field and has lectured and consulted on the topic internationally.

In 1983, Ashbaugh published the article "Ridgeology: Our Next Evaluative Step," in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Gazette. With the article, he was using the word ridgeology for the first time. By Ashbaugh's definition, ridgeology was the process of friction ridge identification based on quantitative-qualitative analysis. The article marked the first of many papers and books Ashbaugh has written on the subject of ridgeology.

In 1999, Ashbaugh wrote and published Quantitative-Qualitative Friction Ridge Analysis: An Introduction to Basic and Advanced Ridgeology, a book considered to be an essential resource for latent print examiners. The book gives an overview of the history of friction ridge identification, as well as detailed discussions of ridgeology methods, including poroscopy, edgeoscopy, pressure distortion, and problem print analysis. Ashbaugh also includes the methodology he developed for palmar flexion crease identification.

Ashbaugh also serves as director of Ridgeology Consulting Services, a firm that provides friction ridge identification training for law enforcement officials. Among his many professional affiliations, he is a distinguished member of the International Association for Identification , a fellow of the Fingerprint Society of the United Kingdom, and an editorial board member of the Journal of Forensic Identification.

see also Fingerprint analysis (famous cases); Ridge characteristics.