"UNFORGEABLE."

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 224, 21 September 1932, Page 5

"UNFORGEABLE."

HUMAN FINGERPRINTS. USE IN CRIME DETECTION. SYSTEM IN NEW ZEALAND. A copper slab, a tube of printers ink and a roller —these are the simple equipment of the fingerprint expert s art, which has sent many a murderer to the gallows, many a criminal behind prison walls. Comparatively not long ago the fingerprint system of crime detection was frowned on by authority, but now it is universally accepted as infallible, and in New Zealand —in fact, in every country in the world —it is one of the major methods of tracking down criminals.

Into the filing systems of the New Zealand police come the fingerprints of crooks of many lands — prints from Copenhagen, Buenos Aires, ■ Paris, Shanghai, Moscow, London. Each is just a few black smudges, but when analysed by the expert it is often enough to complete a chain of evidence which will send a man to confinement. "Man's unforgeable signature" is the apt description given to the fingerprint.

There have been several famous cases, in New Zealand of the invaluable evidence of fingerprints. Those dark smudges which mean so little to anyone save the expert sent the murderer of Mr. Braitliwaite, the Ponsonby postmaster, who was killed in 1920, to his death. In that famous case, unmistakeable evidence was left at the scene of the crime by the murderer, evidence as certain in its effect as though the murderer had left his signature. There were five fingerprints on the revolver which it was proved killed Mr. Braithwaite. On the tin cashbox in the post ofiice were prints exactly similar. And those prints were proved to be the prints of the accused man. So the jury, knowing that in the history of crime detection by fingerprints there has never' been revealed identical prints in any two persons, convicted the accused—and he was hanged. v Use in Hospitals. Crime detection is not the only use to which linger prints are put. One of the latest uses in America is the registration of infants in' maternity hospitals, in order to prevent the accidental substitution of, one child for another. In India the employment of the system has not been restricted to the police department, but has been introduced into all branches of public business, being particularly well suited to the requirements of a country where the mass of the people are uneducated, and where false personation is an evil which even the penalties provided by the, penal laws are powerless to control. On the death, of pensioners' friends or relations have impersonated them and have continued, to draw allowances which should have lapsed with the death of the persons to whom they were originally granted. All military and all civil pensioners are now required to give their finger impressions, and this precaution is effective against fraud.

It was in. 1903 that the finger-print system was first adopted by the New Zealand police. Now it is a big branch of New Zealand crime detection, with. Senior Sergeant Dinnie, of Wellington, and Detective Sergeant l6sell, of Auckland, the recognised authorities. Some faint idea of the labour involved of keepin" 1 track of crinyftals at headquarters may be conveyed by the fact that every man who sees the inside of a gaol in New Zealand for a more serious offence than drunkenness leaves his finger prints with the police. Once taken the prints are filed for reference, after a duplicate set has been taken. So in the cabinets at police headquarters are thousands and thousands of prints, and the prints of a known man can be produced at a'-moment's notice. With the utmost care and detail, all prints are classified. Every print of the ten that are taken from every convicted man's or 'woman's hands has characteristic lines. These lines are classified ! into four patterns —the "loop," _ the "arch," the "whorl" and the "composite." So complicated is the classifaction that well over a thousand primary combinations are possible, to say nothing of the numerous sub-classifications. Such a perfect system has been reached that ■with no further clue than the fingerprints, a man's record can be revealed in a flash. Scotland Yard, naturally, has the greatest finger-print system in the world, perfected by a former commissioner, Sir E. R. Henry, a world authority.

Uses in Commerce. Fingerprint identification is being more and more used in commerce, industry, banking and public affairs. An American authority, James Holt, says that with the fingerprint system in use to identify criminals, it merely establishes its usefulness as an unerring method of determining personality. If the fingerprint of a malefactor can be obtained, it is not only impossible for the guilty to escape identification, but it absolutely prevents the punishment of a victim of circumstantial evidence. No two fingerprints are alike._ There is no possibility of error. Identification is more certain than a series of photographs from cradle to the present could afford, or than all the measurement systems could guarantee. John Smith, finger-printed in New Zealand, upon arrival in London or Paris to transact business, is known to be personally present if his fingerprint record has arrived. Letters of introduction and similar protections are fast going out of date. The fingerprint identification will soon bar them out. In the case of letters of credit, John Smith affixes his fingerprints. Alongside are placed the endorsing fingerprints of the clerk or official who issues the credit. .

In the heart of India, John Smith wants identification to draw 6ums of money. On file is the attesting fingerprint of the official in the bank of issue. Smith presents his letter. Only a few moments are required to make the double identification. There can be no suspicion of forgery, impersonation, or fraud. John Smith is identified. The reappearance of lost relatives will soon be upon a basis where imposture is utterly impossible. Registration of every child by fingerprint is just as easy as registration of birth.

And it is all so very simple. The "whorl" and the "composite," bewildering terms to the layman, tell a story that cannot lie. The copper slab, the printer's ink and the roller have sent many a man to the gallows, have put , many a criminal behind prison walls. No >im> frinte-are alike. ' J