The 5–0
If you’re a criminal, especially a violent one, the cops are tracking you right now, using every means at their disposal. They’re cross-referencing any fingerprints they found at the scene of whatever crime you committed with local and national databases. If they picked up unique dirt from the bottoms of your shoes or fibers from your clothes, they’re looking especially hard at fingerprint records for the locales indicated by that trace evidence. If your crime was heinous enough, or they believe you may be a foreign national, they are working with police departments in other countries to match your fingerprints.
Analysts identified the make, model, and size of your shoe right away. They know roughly how tall you are, how much you weigh, and whether you walk with a limp, pronate when you run, or if you have flat feet or high arches.
They’ve also built a DNA profile of you using hair or fluid found at the scene. They are searching the nearly seven million records contained in the United States government’s Combined DNA Index System. If you’ve left genetic evidence at a previous crime scene (you incorrigible scamp!), you’re probably listed there—if not by name, then at least by profile. If they have the DNA of any of your family members, then they know who those people are, too.
Even if you’re not a criminal, there’s a chance that the police have your fingerprints somewhere. Many local police departments hold fingerprinting drives at primary and high schools. The database of child-size prints these drives gather can be critical in solving kidnappings; but they’re also quite useful in case one of those cute little kids grows up to be a complete bastard with the law on his tail.