are our fingerprints the same as our toe prints? can they identify us with toe prints?

No. Yes. But law enforcement doesn't keep records of toe prints, since most people wear shoes when they commit crimes.

Many modern hospitals take full footprints of newborns, to make sure they don't get mixed up. Their hands and fingers are too tiny to be fingerprinted. Apparently the footprints are sufficiently distinct that the babies don't get mixed up, but with only at most 100 or so others to choose from. Even then, it is more a matter of total shape and size, rather than the tiny lines they use for fingerprint identification.

Apart from the issue of criminals mostly wearing shoes, most other people also wear shoes, so using foot or toe prints for any purpose would be awkward. So much easier to use the hands, which are nearly always exposed. This is useful not only in identifying criminals by the prints they left behind, but in finger or hand recognition security software.

So because of the inconvenience and lack of usefulness, not even a lot of research has been done on footprinting. There has been research on other body parts, particularly the eyes (retina and iris recognition), again mostly for security uses. But these are more likely to change by themselves over time than fingerprints.

No, if you were to leave a foot print they would not be able to identify you by toe print although they could identify you with foot size and shape.

If all birth foot prints were loaded into a data base and the criminals caught were cross referenced, could this possibly help convict or clear someone who is innocent?

the uk is making its citizens get toe prints for their ids

While we have toeprints which are unique to the individual and can be used to ID, they do not necessarily match our fingerprints.