They don't stand up to the claims that prosecutors make about them and get treated as far far more reliable evidence than they actually are. There is some sign

They don't stand up to the claims that prosecutors make about them and get treated as far far more reliable evidence than they actually are. There is some signal in there but analysis of only a few prints or partial prints should be treated as extremely suspect if that's all you got. The place where the limited data is at its strongest is when you know there were only say 3 people who could have made that print because you can reliably rule the others out if they physically couldn't have made the print you lifted. But if you're going fishing and all you have is some prints matched against a database the idea of a "match" meaning anything other than "is part of a cohort of unknown size that could have made that print" should be thrown out.