CRIMINALS’ FINGERPRINTS

Taranaki Daily News, 14 November 1930, Page 7

CRIMINALS’ FINGERPRINTS

NEW CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM. CHIEF INSPECTOR’S DISCOVERY. A Scotland Yard secret just reveiled is expected to revolutionise the fingerprint systems of the world, says the Manchester Guardian. For some time past Chief Inspector Harry Battley, who has charge of the Finger-print Bureau at Scotland Yard, has been experimenting to find a simpler way of catching criminals through finger impressions left at scenes of crime. Under the existing single finger-print system the task of searching for a duplicate in the bureau collection of some forty thousand single impressions was found long and difficult, and sometimes entailed a search of three-quar-ters of the collection. The few identifications made did not justify the time and labour expended. Mr. Battley has striven to overcome these difficulties and provide a satisfactory method of classifying and filing single prints which can easily and readily be identified with . finger-marks found at scenes of crime. He has explained his system in a book which will ba published by the Stationery Office.

The author’s secret lies in a special glass with a centre spot and seven concentric circles. Thus a circular area is taken for scrutiny. Taken alone, ridge characteristics have been found unreliable as a basis of classification for single prints. They assume different forms according to varying pressures. Mr. Battley has provided important new sub-groups for classification by noting the particular circles on his glass in which specified points of a print fall, and their relationship to each other. Results achieved provide interesting readt g. One remarkable case is illustrated 0 by a map which shows the itinerary of a travelling criminal plotted out by the finger-marks lie left at various places. In July, 1928, a wineglass supposed to have been touched by the person who broke into a pavilion at AVatford, and which showed a digital mark, was forwarded to the Yard fingerprint bureau, but no duplicate was recorded in the collection. It was filed in a separate place. During the next twelve months a series of articles bearing similar marks found at scenes of crime were received from various provincial forces—Staple Hill, Stinchcombe, and Chipping . Sotb bury (Gloucestershire), Harpenden, Rugby, Redbourne (Hertfordshire), Loughborough, and King’s Langley. In ■each case there were points of similarity that enabled the bureau to say definitely that the marks were made by the same person —the one who handled the wineglass. Shortly afterwards a man was arrested at Hitchin for housebreaking and larceny, and his finger-prints were sent to the bureau, where they were at once recognised as identical with those placed on one side. At his trial the man admitted having committed the offences.