FINGER PRINT SYSTEM

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11767, 14 October 1932, Page 7

FINGER PRINT SYSTEM

SCOTLAND YARD 31 AG it

131 PROVED PROCESS PERFECTED

CLASSIFICATION SIMPLIFIED. Police chiefs throughout tho United Slides are watching with keen interest a new, or rather improved, method of finger-print identification that has been adopted by die detective force in Washington. Tho now system is what is known as the ‘‘single print” method, and a tremendous advance is claimed for it over the system formerly in vogue. Two great advantages. it is said, stand out. Where it was necessary once for the ten prints of ;i normal man’s hands to lie taken and filed for fut'ure reference, the prints kept by any first-class record office ran into millions, despite the most careful pruning down of the prints of criminals or suspected criminals «dio died. Classification, therefore, necesossarily became an involved and tricky business, and by cutting down to one-tenth Hie number of prints necessary for filing this work bus been greatly simplified. The second point of advantage arises out of the first achievement. P is that identification is speeded up tremendously and speed is a prime factor in modern criminal catching.

Adoption of this single print method is a real feather in the cap ol Scotland Yard, since it is its method that Washington is copying. Ihe .system i,s the invention of Chiel-luspec-tur Bailey, head of Scotland Yard's linger print depart incut, who is regarded as one of the world's ioremost experts in the scheme, and who .has spent many years ot study of the special problems involved in a fresh svstem of classification.

DEMONSTRATION OF EFFICIENCY

When lie had painstakingly evolved this system, 3Jr. Bailey demonstrated to the authorities that it was no lunger necessary for the ten fingerprints of a man to bo taken and filed in the records. One single print, or even a (portion of a single print, fie showed, was sufficient for the certain identification of a person. Working on this idea, he was able to construct a system which made it possible to dispense with a large number of the records kept at the 3 aid. American and ether police duels have closely examined this system *n comparison with those of Baris, Berlin and Vienna —each wonderful in its own way—and have come to 'tho conclusion i.Juit the Scotland Yard system is by far the finest vet, evolved. Ilence the move to adopt it in Washington—a move that is regarded as a preliminary to general use throughout the United States. Each year nearly 20,000 finger-print identifications are made by the 2(3 trained men who stall Scotland Yard s bureau under Air. Bailey, there arc in the Yard’s collection over 4,000,UOO prints, no two of which are alike, and 'it is an amazing fact that so beautifully organised is the machine lhat a print found on the scene of a crime and, if made by a known criminal, can be turned up and ideidified with a precision that is uncanny wiljiiu two minutes. That means that within five minutes the hunt for that particular criminal is on, and there is, no faster police work in the world than that. PIONEERS OF THE SYSTEM The finger-print method ol identification "'as first adopted in Britain some ffO years ago, having already been tested in India- with definite results. its infallibility lias been demonstrated time and again. A mans finger-prints never change throughout his lifetime.

A striking example of this truth was furnished by the late Sir William Hjorsc.hu]., one of the pioneers of the system. When lie was 26 years of age he took an impression of his own finger-prints. Fifty-four years later he took another impression. Both sets proved absolutely identicalAmong the records at Scotland A aid is a set of prints of one man taken at two periods 49 years apart. They, too, are exactly identical. The cabling of prints to capitals abroad has long been in operation, hut one striking case occurred a. short time ago. Two youths had been arrested in London, and against their claim to he young men. of irreproachable character the detectives had n shrewd idea that they had a history in Australia. . Accordingly the men’s finger-prints were taken and the characteristics . cabled to Sydney by a special, code which is Scotland Yard’s own. invention. , . ■ „

Twenty-lulll' hours Inter, there was a. reply from the Sydney police giving the eurreet names and complete criminal records of both men. NATURE -NUT TU JJE UJ ItATEJJ. 3u the records of Scotland VurJ are several instances of the efforts of criminals to avoid lingor-print. ideiitiiiealion by- deliberate endeavour to 'Obliterate the ridges and other eltaraoteristics. Acid and pumice-stone are employed in the process. All these efforts have failed, however, for nature always reasserts itself, and the damaged ridges .return to their old condition. There was the ease, for example, of a tieket-oj'-lea v<> man who, arrested as a suspected burglar, and knowing that identification would result in his having to serve the unexpired portion of his sentence, used his bootlaces to rip and tear with the metal ends the lips of each of Ids lingers. The mutilations were terrible and painful, but they were useless. The umn was put into hospital immediately, and although it took months for tiie injuries properly to heal, it was possible after a day or two to take linger-prints 'impressions which established beyond all doubt that he w 'as the actual burglar. M LJtDJt 11 KITS 'll! AUK El) DOWN. Murderers, too, have been tracked down by finger-prints. The first capita] ease in which the science was employed in England was in the ease of a shopkeeper at Deptford in 1 1)0 o. On the floor lay a rilled cash-box, and on this box were a bloodstain and Jim distinct, impression of a human thumb. That clue-sent two young brothers mimed Stratton ! -o tip. sealfold. Many iamoiis people hn\e been interested in Scotland 'turds fingerprint collection, ami a year or two ago the department received a visit jrom the I’rinee el Males, lie was shown the "bole process from Iwgiuidng to end. In order i lioroui-ddy to understand the system the ITiiiec had Ids own tinger-prints taken.