Yeah, JD, I'd say fresh is best. I think there are lots of misconceptions about fingerprints. While they're great evidence to present in court, until recent times, they didn't help a lot in solving a case until you had a suspect. Only infrequently are you lucky enough to find a complete set of all 5 fingers to classify and compare against sets on file. And to compare partial prints against those on file was an unbelievably slow and nearly impossible task. Now with some of the new computer programs, it's getting better. But of course, collecting fingerprints, as with any other physical evidence is important, and in my opinion, worth spending a little time on.
Bird