FINGER PRINT IDENTITY

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1628, 13 May 1903, Page 67 (Supplement)

FINGER PRINT IDENTITY

Among the administrative measures for which the present Government can claim credit, the institution of a Finger-Print Bureau for the identification of criminals ■» deserves to ho mentioned, for though _ in thig case New Zealand is not the initiator, it is a sure sign of progressiveness and enlightenment when a good thing is recognised and adopted. So tar, the bureau only concerns itself with the identification of criminals, hut there are many directions in which the system of keeping records of finger-prints might bo extended, with marked benefit to the community. Even within the restricted sphere we have named, the New Zealand Bureau has already given demonstration of the utility of the system, by having a recent stowaway from Sydney identified as a criminal whose fingerprint record had been taken by the authorities of New South Wales. _ The value of the system, indeed, requires no proof, and it has the great advantage that the finger-prints upon which its success depends can be taken by men with practically no training at all; whereas, in the anthropometrical system. the personal equation and the inevitable margin of personal error has often very serious effects m preventing identification or in leading to erroneous results. The Premier of New South Wales recently issued a circular to all the Australasian States, including New Zealand, dwelling upon the assistance that, the system could be called upon to ;’render towards identifying InterState and international malefactors,who so readily adopt names and countries other than their own. Crime becoming in some sort professional and as it were a speciality in the hands of a few individuals who know how to profit by the progress of civilisation and escape repression, it is natural that society should in retaliation avail itself of the discoveries of science in order to haffl© their schemes. Protection to the individual as well as to the State would he secured if all civilised nations adopted the fin-ger-print ’ system and agreed to interchange information. A recent case that is fresh in the recollection of Wellington people is that of the inuooent man Lillywhite, who was arrested here op suspicion of being identical with a man accused of having committed murder at OoLfehester, in England, and whose identity was only made clear after _ many months of harassing anxiety to him and great cost to the State. Had the fingerprint system heen in use to the full extent. and the prints of the real accused person been available, a few minutes would have sufficed to settle the question of identity. The objection has been raised that such an accurate description of a man as the finger-print system affords would do great injury to the first or occasional offender, by placing him in the same category and in the same" fileg with hardened and professional criminals. This is a fallacious and misleading argument. There is nothing objectionable in the process ox taking the prints, and the description of an individual according to this method is buried and hidden in the classified files, never again to be resurrected or examined unless called forth by o duplicate description taken from the identical person and occasioned by a subsequent offence. ~ For full proof of the efficacy of the system, we have to turn to the place where it has heen longest in vogue, viz., the province of Bengal, British India The total number of references mace to the Bengal Criminal Identification Departmenb during the year 1901 was 6309, and in 1259 cases the persons concerned were traced. Of those traced, 562 were references mad© by other provinces and countries. -The following cases are worthy of notice:- A rnan was caught running away with a bag containing Rs. 500. He declared himself to he a new arrival in Rangoon, never before convicted. A telegraphic description of his finger-prints was received from the Burma F. 1., Bureau, and it was found that the man was an old offender, with convictions at Dinajpur, Calcutta and Howrah, under different names and residences. The headless trunk of a man was discovered in a village near Jahanabad, in Gaya. As the body could not be finger impressions of the deceased were taken and compared with certain impressions in an old document and in the finger-print register kept at the local Sub-Registry Office. The impressions were found to be identical, and the identity of the deceased was proved to the satisfaction of the Court. The Patna police sent up the finger-prints of a man calling himself Nurmahomed Khan, son of Samsher Khan, of Shiraz, Persia. The man was traced as Buniad Ali, ’alias Juman, alias Madhu, son of Bhattan, of Anderar, Police Station Silao, district Patna, with four convictions at Patna. The Patna city police, although furnished with the antecedents of the man, were so doubtful about his identity that they wrote hack asking if some mistake had not been ;roade about the identification. The identity of the man was, however, established,in the end, Hie convictions were proved against him, and he was awarded enhanced punishment on _ this account. The following is a case in which identification was of the utmost

importance. A prisoner was sent up by the Nadia police under the name of Syed Meher Ali, son of Syed Samsher Ali, of Gour, Police Station Kanchari Kota, district Nepal. When his fingerprints were forwarded to the Central Bureau, he was traced a<s being Mohar Khan, son of Kashim Khan, of Sherghati, Police Station Raiganj, district Pabna, with ten previous convictions against him in Assam and Bengal. This was a notorious criminal, who had long baffled the efforts of the Bengal police to arrest him, and who might have escaped just punishment but for his identification 1 ‘;jby o< £h'e fingerprint system. " )-fl i ?. r AT.Y. : JThe uses of the--finger-print system extend far ■’ * btey 6frd /1 -The limits of j Criminal work or :l; oU "penal administration. Thi& ascertainment of the personality and undeniable identity of individuals may be made to answer for the most varied needs and services. Should it be a question, for example, of giving to the inhabitants of a countiy, the soldiers of an army, or travellers visitmg the most distantlauds, individual descriptions or charts of peculiar marks, enabling them to identify themselves or to bo recognised at all times; should it be a question of preventing false personation; should it be a question of the distinctive marks of an individual on bank drafts and letters of credit, or in wills, titles, and contracts, where it is desirable that his personality should be established, tor his. own interest, for the interest of third parties, or for the interest of the State, the system of finger-print description will in each instance find its proper office. Should there be a certificate of lire, a policy of life insurance, or occasionally a certificate of death to be drawn up; should there be something needed to certify to the identity of an insane or {unconscious person, who may bo seriously wounded or disfigured so that he can hardly bo recognised, it is easily seen how serviceable it would be to trace these fingermarks, unchangeable in'each individual, endlessly variable between individuals, indelible, even for some time, after death. The advantage of it would be still more manifest if it were necessary to establish the identity of people far away, after a lapse of time, when their external appearance, their physiognomy, their features and physical habits have become changed,'either naturally or artificially; and that without removal or expense, by a simple exchange of figures forwarded from one country to another. In the case of insurance policies, the adoption of the finger-print system might prevent such attempted frauds as were recently exposed in the United States, and of which the Canterbury- “severed hand” mystery was understood to be an example. It may he desirable to have legislation introduced, giving validity to these prints as evidence in the Courts of the land. A practical use to which the system might at once bo put, outside of the criminal sphere, is the taking of impressions of the fingers of all Chines© immigrants, so that they may be traced and the fraudulent exchange of papers prevented or detected. Tlio process of recording impressions is simple, inexpensive and effective; and many private persons will find it to their advantage to have prints of their fingers taken, attested and deposit it with their next of kin, or lawyer or hanker, until such time as the Government provides an institute where the identity of. private individuals can he registered, similar to that in South Kensington, London.