MOTORISTS' FINGERPRINTS

Evening Star, Issue 20778, 28 April 1931, Page 11

MOTORISTS' FINGERPRINTS

DISCUSSION IN ENGLAND. A discussion was lately taking plac® in English police circles on a suggestion that fingerprints should bo used in the licensing ot motor cars in Britain. While there are many officers m favour of the suggestion, others feel that the public might fight shy of the idea, because fingerprints are generally associated with criminals. There are nearly half a million fingerprint impressions at Scotland Yard, and it is an easy , task to identify a person it Igs. impressions are filed. In New • York the photograph and tha fingerprints of every driver of a puhlio vehicle are affixed to his license. Brown, one of the murderers of Gutteridge, the Essex policeman, boasted that lie had never paid for a driving license or a log-book, although ho did a steady trade in the sale of stolen vehicles. . He forged the necessary papers. There «iro other criminals who to-day can get an expert forger to help them. ' Thoso in favour of the use or fingerprints argue that if these and photo* graphs were used in the licensing of cars the unlawful transfer of stolen cars would be impossible. They further contend that it would be impossible for a man of bad character to obtain a driving license or to register a motor car without the fact being known t®tlvo authorities.