As criminals become more forensically aware of their traceability, forensic scientists need to up their game with advancing implementable technology. Technology improvements should aim to enhance recoverability of the evidence and expand, strengthen and communicate retrievable intelligence. Fingerprinting still remains one of the most powerful means of biometric identification. However, it has been underplayed in terms of the additional value and information they contain. Pioneering work at Sheffield Hallam University, UK, has demonstrated the capabilities of Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionisation Mass Spectrometry Imaging (MALDI MSI) to yield both physical and chemical information by providing multiple images of the same fingermark, simultaneous with additional intelligence1. Physical information could complement the ridge pattern retrieved by CSI or even provide the only ridge pattern image for database comparison, as well as enabling separation of overlapping impressions2,3. The opportunity to detect chemical information (small organic molecules, aminoacids, fatty acids, peptides, proteins and hence drugs, toiletry products, condom lubricants and blood as a few examples) could provide investigative leads on the physiological4, pathological5 and lifestyle information1,6 as well as being useful to prove/disproof the suspect's statements. In recent publications, we also report on the opportunity to reliably detect and map the presence of blood onto the identifying ridges of a fingermark, thus providing associative evidence between the events of the bloodshed and the biometric information6. Indeed, this technique is proving to be a very powerful confirmatory test for the presence of blood as well as providing additional intelligence from the detection of this biological fluid7-9. Contextual consumption of drugs and alcohol can also be proved9-10 in police casework and this is useful to inform on the suspect's state of mind while committing the crime. Here, the pioneering use and rapid developments of MALDI MS based approaches for the analysis of latent and blood marks are presented together with insights into Police casework undertaken in collaboration with West Yorkshire Police, Defense Science and Technology Laboratory and the Home Office in UK. References [1] Bradshaw R, Denison N and Francese S, Analyst 142 (2017) 2518 [2] R. Bradshaw W. Rao, R. Wolstenholme, et al., FSI 318 (2012) 318 [3] Bradshaw R and Francese S, MALDI-MSI in the Forensic arena, T Porta (Ed) MALDI Mass Spectrometry Imaging: From Fundamentals to Spatial Omics 978-1-83916-520-7 (2021), Springer, Cham, Switzerland [4] Heaton C, Bury C, Patel E, et al., Forensic Chemistry, 20 (2020) 100271 [5] Heaton C, Witt M, Cole L, et al., Analyst 46(2021) 4290 [6] Deininger L, Patel E, Clench MR et al., Proteomics, 16 (2016)1707 [7] Kennedy K, Heaton, C., Langenburg, G. et al., Scientific Reports 10 (2020) 17087 [8] Kennedy K, Witt M., Cole L et al., Molecules 27 (2022) 2039 [9] Witt M, Kennedy K, Heaton C, et al., Bruker application note (2021) [10] Bradshaw R, Denison N and Francese S, Analyst, 142 (2017)1581