HISTORY DEVELOPMENT OF FINGERPRINT

EARLY METHODS OF PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION

There were many ways in identifying a person during the primitive era such as tattooing,
branding, mutilating and other means. These were also applied to animals. These means were
also applied in marking suspects for the people to know that a person was a menace to the
community

Biblical Passages Relating to Fingerprint

Some writers on fingerprints profess to read references into certain biblical quotations,
namely, “He sealeth the hand of every man and all may know his work” (Job 26:7).
However, this was contradicted by another biblical passage: “See now this cursed woman and
bury her, but they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet and the palms of her hands
so they shall not say this is Jezebel” (Kings 160:34-37) (Vinluan & Mendoza, 2006 p.1).

Origin of Fingerprints

Fingerprints were used in China before the birth of Christianity and were used
symbolically by the Chinese.

Some of the early practices of fingerprints were credited to the Chinese who were
successful in applying this method in their daily business and legal activities. They used it in the
preparation and preservation of legal documents. During those times, the Chinese Law states,
thus, “to divorce a wife, the husband must give a document stating therein the reasons or
grounds. The document should be signed by the husband’s own handwriting, but in case he is
unable to write, he must sign with his fingerprints.”

The document below is the palmprint of Rajyahar Konai, who imprinted his palm in a
contract as a sign of acknowledgment.
 Emperor Te’in Shi (BC 246-210) was the first Chinese ruler who devised a seal carved
from white jade. Fingerprints during this time were used for business transactions as signatures
and as sign of acknowledgment of purchases. China was the first to introduce fingerprints as
medium of personal identification by pressing the fingers on soft mud or clay.

To the Chinese, fingerprint is Hua Chi. Slices of matches of the fingerprints are kept to
preserve the identity of the people. The arches and whorls are called Lo (snail); Loops are Ki
(sieve or winnowing basket). The loops are looked upon as presages of good luck (Manlusoc,
2008 p.1-2).

The Aztecs was one of the tribes in

Mexico that had the tradition of printing their
palm in mud to be placed in their tombs. One
evidence showed where palmprints were
imprinted is found below.
(http//[Link]/fp/fr/chinese_
clay_seal.ipg).

Development of Fingerprint

Dr. Nehemiah Grew (1641-1712) published a report before the Royal Society of London
in which he described the ridges and pores of human fingers, hands, toes and feet as the
beginning of early scientific research in 1684. He presented his observations on the appearance
of the ridges on the fingers and palm in his thesis, Philosophical Transaction (Tubid, 1996 p.
8).

Govard Bidloo described the arrangement of skin ridges and pores on thumbs through
his thesis entitled Anatomia Humanis Corporis (Anatomy of Human Corpse) in 1685.

Marcello Malpighi (1628-1694) was an Italian professor who reported his observations
on pores and ridges in 1856. He also made a scientific study of the layers on the skin. All these
works were anatomical, none attempted to classify fingerprints and none discussed the value of
fingerprints for identification purposes. He published a book entitled De Externo Tactus
Organo. He then became known as the Grandfather of fingerprints. It was also him who first
used the terms loops and spirals. One of the layers of the human skin was named after him, the
Malpighian Layer. (http//[Link]/fp/ fr/[Link]).

The Londonderry Agreement (1691) was a traditional law which was created in 1691
in London which requires both parties to impress their thumbs on a document that contains the
agreement and conditions. During this time, such practice was not fully established and cleared if
this had the purpose of establishing identity or merely symbolic. (Vinluan & Mendoza, 2006
p.2).
 Hintze (1751) was a German national who made several writings about ridge formations
in 1751. He said that the prime bases of identification should be the anatomy of fingerprints
rather than by mere comparison or identification.

Thomas Bewick (1753-1828) was an English wood engraver, author and naturalist who
became England’s finest engraver of fingerprint stamps. He made wooden engravings of
fingerprints and published their images in his books. Two of his books published contained the
phrase- Thomas Bewick, His Mark. He was born near Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland.
He became an apprentice to and, in 1777, partner of an engraver in Newcastle. Bewick illustrated
A General History of Quadrupeds (1790), which popularized natural history and led to the
publication of History of British Birds (1797 and 1804). He also illustrated the book. Among
his other works is an illustrated Fables of Æsop (1818). Bewick's depiction of animals showed
his great understanding of their nature and habitat, and his technique of white line on a black
background revived wood engraving as an art. (Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009).

Albinus (1764) was another German who made similar study with those conducted by
Hintze in 1764. His study was focused on ridge formations and the characteristics of pores.

Dr. J.C.A. Mayer (1788) was a German writer who stated in his book entitled
“Anatomische Kupfertafein Nebst Dazu Gehorigen” that the arrangements of skin ridges are
never duplicated in two individuals and that there are no
two persons having the same fingerprints.

Herman Welcker took the prints of his right palm 41

1897
years apart in 1856 and 1897. He compared the two
prints and concluded that there were no changes in the
formation of ridges. He then strengthened the principle of
permanency of fingerprints (Tubid, 1996. p.17).

Prof. Johannes Evangelist Purkinje (1787-1869) was a

Czechoslovakian professor of the University of Breslau, Germany who
published a thesis entitled “Commentatio de examine physiologico
organi visus et systematis cutanei” (A commentary on the
physiological examination of the organs of visions and the coetaneous
system) which was officially published on December 22, 1823. In this
thesis, he named 9 fingerprint patterns and laid down classification rules.
He was later known as the Father of Dactyloscopy
(http//[Link]/fp/fr.prof_je_purkinje.ipg).

Purkinje Patterns
1. Transverse curves (plain arch)
2. Central longitudinal stria (tented arch)
3. Oblique stripe (ulnar or radial loop)
4. Oblique loop (ulnar or radial loop)
5. Almond (whorl)
6. Spiral (whorl)
7. Ellipse-elliptical whorl (whorl)
8. Circle-circular whorl (whorl)
9. Double whorl (Twin loop)

Development of Fingerprinting as a Method of Identification

Sir William James Herschel (1833-1917) was the Chief Administrator of Hoogly
District of Bengal, India who required the laborers who were mostly natives of India to be
fingerprinted/palmprinted inorder to prevent impersonation. In 1858, he started the practice of
recording the hand prints of the natives on contracts. This formed the basis of modern
fingerprinting as we now employ it. In 1916, he published his 41-page book entitled “The
Origin of Fingerprinting.” (http//[Link]/fp/ fmiru/sir_wm_ [Link]).

Dr. Henry Faulds (1843-1930) was a Surgeon-Superintendent of

Tsukiji Hospital in Tokyo, Japan who made series of writings about
fingerprints in 1877. Much of its concentration is the description of
fingerprints to be used in criminal detection. Some of his ideas have
found their way into practice today. One of his articles is “On the skin
furrows of the hand.” He made this article after noticing finger marks
on specimens of prehistoric pottery. Dr. Faulds did not only recognize
the importance of fingerprints as a means of identification, but devised a
method of classification as well (http//[Link]. com/fp/fr/dr_henry_ [Link]).

Edward Foster (1863-1956) was a Canadian constable of the Dominion Police who
attended the World’s Fair to guard a display of gold. He attended Perrier’s presentation at the
convention and intrigued by the possibilities that fingerprinting had to offer, he felt that a
fingerprinting bureau would be effective than an anthropometry bureau. He also felt that a
national organization in Canada similar to the International Association of Chiefs of Police
(IACP) would encourage cooperation among Canadian police departments and be an ideal body
to promote national interest in fingerprinting.

Upon returning to Canada, he presented his new-found knowledge and on July 21, 1908,
an Order-in-Council was passed sanctioning the use of fingerprint system and that the provisions
of “The Identification of Criminal Act” became applicable in Canada. Foster was involved in the
following cases:

1. In 1911, the Chicago Police Department arrested a man named Thomas Jennings for
murder. Jennings killed the man when he was caught attacking the man’s daughter. The
evidence against Jennings was slim except for fingerprint evidence. The prosecution wanted
to ensure the fingerprint evidence would be admitted before the Illinois Supreme Court
which has not previously ruled on the issues. To strengthen its case, the prosecution called
several recognized fingerprint experts as witnesses, including Edward Foster. During the
cross examination, Foster was asked by the defense if he could raise fingerprints on various
surfaces. He took the paper and developed a fingerprint on it. The Jennings trial is considered
 a landmark case in the courts. Jennings was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging on
December 22, 1911.

2. It was Edward Foster who gave expert opinion to the first conviction on Canada based on
fingerprint evidence which took place in 1914. Involved were Peter Caracath and Gregory
Parachique who broke into the CPR Station in Petawawa, Ontario. They left fingerprints on
glass objects at the point of entry. The police used these and identified the two as the real
culprits.

Thomas Taylor (1877) was a Microscopist of the Department of Agriculture,

Washington, DC who suggested that crime can be resolved with the latent prints from the crime
scene. The July 1877 issue of “The American Journal of Microscopy and Popular Science”
contained the test that formed part of the lecture by Taylor, as stated below:

“Hand marks under the microscope exhibited on a screen view of the markings of the
palms of the hands, and the tips of the fingers, and called attention to the possibility of
denitrifying criminals, especially murderers, by comparing the marks of the hands left
upon any object with impressions in wax taken from the hands of suspected persons. In
case of murderers, the marks of bloody hands would present a very favorable
opportunity. This is a new system of palmistry.”

Isaiah West Taber (1880) was a photographer in San Francisco who suggested that
fingerprinting be adopted for the registration of Chinese immigrant laborers in Northern
America.

Alphonse Bertillon (1882) was a French criminologist and Clerk of Prefecture of Police
in Paris, France who initiated in 1879, the Bertillon System, also known as Anthropometry,
Bertillionage, Anthropological Signalment, a method for identifying suspects. He was known
as the Father of Personal Identification. This system was used in England for almost two
decades before fingerprint system was used. The system records anthropometric measurements
and personal characteristics, such as color of eyes, scars, and deformities
([Link] alphonse_bertillon.ipg).

The following measurements were taken:

1. Body - height standing, reach from fingertips to fingertips, length of

trunk and head, or height sitting;

2. Head - length and width, length and width of right ear;

3. Limbs - length of left foot, length of left middle finger, length of left
little finger, length of left forearm. These measurements were recorded on cards and
classified according to the length of the head.
 Alphonse Bertillon’s measurements were difficult to take with uniform exactness, and
physical dimensions can change as a result of growth or surgery. For these reasons,
fingerprinting and other methods have for the most part superseded the Bertillon system as the
principal means of identification in American and European police systems.

Based on historical accounts, the Bertillon-System was questioned due to the famous
West Case. This was about two persons, the twins Will West and William West. The twins had
the same face, height, body built and color of skin that a mistake of identity was committed using
the Bertillon
System.

Gilbert
Thompson (1882)
was a Geologist at
the United States
Geologic Survey
Camp who used
his thumbprints
beginning in 1882
to attest the
genuine of the
camp orders
issued by him to the expeditions conducted by his men to New Mexico and to the different states
of US.

Arthur Kollman (1883) was a German anthropologist who published a book in 1883
about ridges and pores but did not associate fingerprints with identification of suspects. He was
the first researcher to address the formation of friction ridges in embryos and the topographical
physical stressors that may have been part of their growth. He identified the presence and
locations of the volar pads on the human hand and foot (Depayso, 2009).

H. Klaatsch (1888) was a German national who examined the walking pads and
eminences of several pentadactylous of five-fingered mammals in 1888. He was credited for
being the first researcher to examine the walking surface of other animals.

Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911) was a British anthropologist who was engaged in
biological studies with the aid of the works of Herschel. In 1892, Sir Galton wrote his first book
entitled “Fingerprints” where he devised a practical system of both classification and filing. In
1893, the British government became interested in the works of Sir Galton. The Secretary of
State of Great Britain was greatly impressed by the studies which were found in the Galton’s
Laboratory. Sir Galton named three major groups of fingerprint patterns, namely arches, whorls
and loops.

Juan Vucetich (1891-1892) was an Argentine Fingerprint Pioneer and a

police officer of Argentina who devised the Vucetich System. This system
of fingerprint is employed in most Spanish – speaking countries of Central and South America.
However, the Henry System dominates the fingerprint practice of the world.

Signature of Juan Vucetich

Vucetich and Galton (1892) - Juan Vucetich made the first criminal fingerprint
identification in 1892. He was able to identify Francis Rojas, a woman who murdered her two
sons and cut her own throat in an attempt to put blame on another. Her bloody print was left on a
door post, proving her identity as the murderer.

The picture on the left side contains the fingerprints of

Francis Rojas, who murdered her two sons and put the
blame on her neighbor in 1892, but the bloody
fingerprints on the post were identified by Vucetich as
those from the woman herself which led to her
confession.

Galton's primary interest in fingerprints was

used as an aid in determining heredity and racial background. While he soon discovered that
fingerprints offered no firm clues to an individual's intelligence or genetic history, he was able to
scientifically prove what Herschel and Faulds already suspected: that fingerprints do not change
over the course of an individual's lifetime, and that no two fingerprints are exactly the same.
According to his calculations, the odds of two individual fingerprints being the same were 1 in
64 billion.

Galton identified the characteristics by which fingerprints can be identified. A few of

these same characteristics (minutiae) are basically still in use today and are sometimes referred to
as Galton Details.

Samuel L. Clemens (1894) also known as Mark Twain was an

American author and lecturer who enhanced the position of fingerprints
when he included their use in the plot of a novel entitled Pudd’n Head
Wilson. In the novel, a bloody fingerprint is found in the murder
weapon and Pudd’n Head, the defense attorney, has the whole town
fingerprinted. Clemens lectured the court and jury on the basics of
fingerprinting, how fingerprints are immutable, and those two
fingerprints will never be found to be the same. He also commented on how identical twins can
be indistinguishable in appearance, at times even by their parents, but their fingerprints will
always be different. He also wrote a book entitled “Life on the Mississippi,” where a murderer
was identified using fingerprint evidence.

David Hepburn (1895) published a paper on the similarity in appearance of the

eminences or walking surfaces of primates entitled, “The papillary ridges on the hands and
feet of monkeys and men.” He was connected with the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.

Murder in the Tea Garden of Eden (India). This is a case of a man who was found
dead with his throat cut in the Tea Garden of Eden near the workplace of Sir Edward Richard
Henry in 1897. The ex-servant of the deceased was the suspect but the police found no evidence
against him. Police Officer Edward Richard Henry eventually found a book with two bloodstain
marks on it. He preserved and examined these bloodstain prints that matched with the
fingerprints of the ex-servant which led to his conviction (Vinluan & Mendoza, 2006 p. 7).

Sir Edward Richard Henry (1859-1931) was a police officer who

became the successor of Sir Herschel who was interested in fingerprints.
Studying the earlier works of Herschel and Galton, Henry started on a
classification system of his own now called the Henry System. In 1899,
he read a paper detailing his system before the British Association of
Science. In 1900 he published his book entitled “Classification and
Uses of Fingerprint.” The next year, he became Assistant
Commissioner of Scotland Yard Police. In July 1901, the Henry system
was introduced in England and Wales which was officially adopted in the same year. Because of
his contributions to police service and his persistence in devising a workable system of
classification, he became the Father of Fingerprint Science.

Khan Bahadur Azizul Haque and Rai Hem Chandra Bose (1897) were the two Indian
fingerprint experts who helped Henry in coming up with a workable system of classification. The
system became successful with the assistance of another Mathematics Professor at Presidency
College in Calcutta, India. On the June 12, 1897, the Council of the Governor General of India
approved a committee report stating that fingerprints should be used for classification of criminal
records. Later that year, the Calcutta (now Kolkata) Anthropometric Bureau became the world's
first Fingerprint Bureau. Working in the Calcutta Anthropometric Bureau (before it became the
Fingerprint Bureau) were Haque and Bose. The Henry classification system is still used in all
English-speaking countries primarily as the manual filing system for accessing paper archive
files that have not been scanned and computerized.

The Belper Committee (1900). Due to the mistaken identities and wrongful convictions,
this committee was created in 1900 and was setup by Lord Belper to look into the problems of
personal identification for police purposes. This committee evaluated the Bertillon System and
Henry System. The committee decided that it will be the Henry System that was used in
identifying suspects. Sir Edward Henry was appointed by the committee as assistant
Commissioner in the London Metropolitan Police and asked to start a Fingerprint Bureau
(Vinluan & Mendoza, 2006 p. 7).
 In July 1901, the Fingerprint Branch at New Scotland Yard (London Metropolitan
Police) was created using the Henry System.

Dr. Henry P. DeForrest (1902) installed a fingerprint system in the Civil Service
Commission of the United States and started fingerprinting all civil service applicants in 1902.
Dr. DeForrest was the Chief of the New York Civil Service Commission.

Capt. James I. Parke (1903) installed a fingerprint system in the New York State
Prison (NYSP) in Albany, New York. Fingerprints of prisoners were taken and classified and
the fingerprint system was officially adopted on June 5, 1903. Today, New York uses the
American System, which is similar to the Henry System and represents the system initiated by
Captain James Parke.

Sgt. John Kenneth Perrier (1904) was a member of the Scotland Yard Police who was
assigned to guard the British Crown Jewels during the World Fair Exposition. During this Fair
Expo, he met Sir Edward Richard Henry and became a student on fingerprint. After learning
fingerprints, he also became an instructor at the St. Louis Police Department (SLPD) in
Missouri, USA (Depayso, 2009).

Maj. R. McCloughry (1904) was the Warden of the Federal Penitentiary of

Leavenworth when the Office of the Attorney General of the US granted permission to establish
a fingerprint bureau on November 2, 1904. It was the first national government to adopt
fingerprints (Depayso, 2009).

Inez Whipple (1871-1929) published in 1904, a paper entitled “The Vential surface of
the mammalian chiridium with special reference to the conditions found in man.” His
survey into mammalian palm and sole configurations formed an important part of the modern
scientific knowledge on the subject and is considered as landmark in the fields of genetics and
ridgeology. The development of the surfaces of the hands and feet of all mammals are similar to
some degree was learned from the paper.
1905 – The U.S. Army began using fingerprints. The U.S. Department of Justice formed the
Bureau of Criminal Identification in Washington, DC to provide a centralized
reference collection of fingerprint cards.

Two years later, the U.S. Navy started and was joined the next year by the
Marine Corps. During the next 25 years more and more law enforcement
agencies joined in the use of fingerprints as a means of personal identification.
Many of these agencies began sending copies of their fingerprint cards to the National Bureau of
Criminal Identification, which was established by the International Association of Police Chiefs.

1907 – The U.S. Navy began using fingerprints. The U.S. Department of
Justice's Bureau of Criminal Identification moves to Leavenworth Federal
Penitentiary where it was staffed at least partially by inmates.

1908 – Aside from the U.S. Marine Corps began using fingerprints. The
Identification Division of the FBI was established. The fingerprint records
both from the National Bureau of Criminal Identification (NBCI) of the
International Association of Police and Leavenworth Penitentiary (IAPLP),
totaling 810,188 were consolidated to form the nucleus of the FBI fingerprint
files in Washington, D.C. The FBI’s identification files have the largest
collection in the world.

Director J. Edgar Hoover was the Director of FBI who used

fingerprints in positively identifying wanted persons in the list of FBI.
The FBI gained renown for arresting gangsters in the 1930’s and
apprehending Axis spies during World War II (1939-1945). After the
war, Hoover turned his attention to what he believed was the growing
threat of Communism. In this 1947 testimony before the House
Committee on Un-American Activities, a committee of the House of
Representatives, Hoover reveals his view that Communists are
dangerous enemies of the country.

The agency that eventually became the FBI was founded on July 26, 1908, when U.S. attorney
general Charles J. Bonaparte appointed Stanley W. Finch to head a new, unnamed
investigative division within the Department of Justice. The division started with 34 special
agents, 10 of whom were former Secret Service employees. It was named the Bureau of
Investigation in 1909. The agency took its present name, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in
1935 (Hoover, J.E., Microsoft Encarta, 2009).

In its early years, the agency’s jurisdiction was limited because most crimes were handled
by local law enforcement agencies. Its investigative responsibilities included antitrust violations,
bankruptcy fraud, postal fraud, violation of federal banking laws, destruction of government
property, and certain crimes on Native American reservations. In 1910 Congress expanded the
bureau’s jurisdiction by passing the White Slave Traffic Act (Mann Act), which made it a federal
crime to transport girls or women across state lines for prostitution or other immoral purposes.
The Motor Vehicle Theft Act (Dyer Act) of 1919 empowered the bureau to investigate whenever
stolen automobiles were taken across state lines. These laws gave the bureau additional ways to
combat organized crime and to investigate criminals who eluded local police by crossing state
lines (http//[Link]/m).

Frederick A. Brayle (1910) published one of the first American books on fingerprints
that provides lessons on identification and its uses. The book was published in Boston by the
Worcester Press, Inc. in 1910.

Dr. Edmond Locard (1912) was known as the Father of Poroscopy. He

also examined pores in detail and published a paper as a result of his
studies in 1912. According to Locard, the sweat pores vary in size, shape,
position in ridge, number of frequency, the average number of pores that
occur on a given length of ridge and average of number of pores found
within a given area. The amount of pores found in one centimeter of ridge
varies from 9-18. Sgt. David R. Ashbaugh (1993) stated that the number
of pores ranged from 1611 on smaller fingers to 2658 on the larger thumb
print. But according to Robert D. Oslen Sr. (1978) papillary skin
contains an average of 2700 pores per square inch.

In 1918, Dr. Locard wrote that if 12 points were the same between two fingerprints, it
would suffice as a positive identification. Locard's 12 points seems to have been based on an
unscientific improvement over the eleven anthropometric measurements (arm length, height,
etc.) used to identify criminals before the adoption of fingerprints.

1915 – Insp. Harry H. Caldwell of the Oakland, California Police

Department's Bureau of Identification wrote numerous letters to "Criminal
Identification Operators" on August 1915, asking them to meet in Oakland for
the purpose of forming an organization to further the aims of the
identification profession. In October 1915, a group of 22 identification
personnel met and initiated the International Association for Criminal
Identification (IACI). In 1918, the organization was renamed International
Association for Identification (IAI) due to the volume of non-criminal
identification work performed by members. Sir Francis Galton's right index
finger appears in the IAI logo. The IAI's official publication is the Journal of
Forensic Identification.

Institute of Applied Science in Illinois, USA, was one of the pioneer schools in USA to
teach personal identification through fingerprint science. It started on June 16, 1916.

Frederick Kuhne (1916) published his book entitled “The Fingerprint Instructor”
which became one of the first authoritative books on fingerprint which circulated in the United
States in 1916.

Fingerprint and Identification Magazine (1919) was a monthly published magazine in

United States that is devoted exclusively for fingerprint science that started in 1919.
 1924 – The act of Congress established the Identification Division of the FBI.
The IACP's National Bureau of Criminal Identification and the US Justice
Department's Bureau of Criminal Identification were consolidated to form the
nucleus of the FBI fingerprint files.

Harry J. Myers II (1925) installed a fingerprint system at the Jewish

Maternity Hospital (JMH) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA in 1925. The said hospital
identified newborn infants through laser-fingerprinting them in order to avoid mix-up with other
infants.

The Legislature of Pennsylvania, USA instituted into law that all infants with their
respective mothers should be fingerprinted and footprinted immediately after birth to have
absolute bases of identification in cases of mix ups. This regulation was made on April 30, 1925
and was fully implemented in 1926.

In 1946, the FBI had processed 100 million fingerprint cards in manually maintained
files; and by 1971, 200 million cards. With the introduction of automated fingerprint
identification system (AFIS) technology, the files were split into computerized criminal files and
manually maintained civil files. Many of the manual files were duplicates though, the records
actually represented between 25 to 30 million criminals and an unknown number of individuals
in the civil files.

Salil Kumar Chatterjee (1963) was a fingerprint scientist from Calcutta, India who
devised a system founded on the unique and infinite configurations of the papillary ridges in
1963. His published work was a result of his study of the edge of the ridges and its various
shapes.

The Fingerprint Society (1974) started with four employees of the

Hertfordshire (United Kingdom) Fingerprint Bureau. They contacted
fingerprint experts throughout the UK and began organization of that
country's first professional fingerprint association, the National Society of
Fingerprint Officers. The organization initially consisted of only UK
experts, but quickly expanded to international scope and was renamed the
Fingerprint Society in 1977. F.F.S. used behind a fingerprint expert's name
indicates that they were recognized as a Fellow of the Fingerprint Society.
The Society hosted annual educational conferences with speakers and delegates attending from
many countries.
 The 62nd Annual Conference of the International Association for
identification (IAI), 1977 was held at New Orleans, Louisiana on August 1,
1977. The delegates voted to establish the world's first certification program
for fingerprint experts. Since 1977, the IAI's Latent Print Certification
Board has proficiency tested thousands of applicants, and periodically
administered proficiency tests for all IAI Certified Latent Print Examiners
(CLPEs). IAI CLPE status is considered by many identification professionals
to be a measurement of excellence. During the past three decades, CLPE
status has become a prerequisite for journeyman fingerprint expert positions in many US state
and federal government forensic laboratories.

The INTERPOL's Automated Fingerprint Identification System (2005)

repository exceeds 50,000 sets of fingerprints for important international
criminal records from 184 member countries. Over 170 countries have 24 x 7
interface ability with INTERPOL expert fingerprint services.

Prof. Harris Wilder was an American scientist who discovered that ridges first emerge
in the fetus as bumps with a pore appearing randomly somewhere on its structure. These pore
pods fuse together to form ridges. Each pore pod is a unique island of individuality. Because of
this unique feature of the ridges, they acquire also a unique characteristics of their own.

2009 - The largest Automated Fingerprint Identification System

(AFIS) repository in America is operated by the Department of
Homeland Security's US Visit Program, containing over 100 million
persons' fingerprints, many in the form of two-finger records. The two-
finger records are non-compliant with FBI and Interpol standards, but
sufficient for positive identification and valuable for forensics because
index fingers and thumbs are the most commonly identified crime scene fingerprints. The US
Visit Program has been migrating from two flat (not rolled) fingerprints to ten flat fingerprints
since 2007. Fast capture research funded by the US government will enable implementation of
ten rolled print equivalent fingerprint recording within 15 seconds per person fingerprinted in
future years.

The largest tenprint AFIS repository in America is the FBI's Integrated AFIS (IAFIS) in
Clarksburg, WV. IAFIS has more than 54 million individual computerized fingerprint records
for known criminals. Old paper fingerprint cards for the civil files are still manually maintained
in a warehouse facility in Fairmont, WV, though most enlisted military service member
fingerprint cards received after 1990 and all military-related fingerprint cards received after May
19, 2000, have now been computerized and can be searched internally by the FBI. In Next
Generation Identification, the FBI may make civil file AFIS searches available to US law
enforcement agencies through remote interface. The FBI is also planning to eventually expand
their automated identification activities to include other biometrics such as palm, iris and face.

All US states and many large cities have their own AFIS databases, each with a subset of
fingerprint records that is not stored in any other database. Thus, law enforcement fingerprint
interface standards are very important to enable sharing records and reciprocal searches for
identifying criminals.

Fingerprint was not Invented

It can now be told that the fingerprint system was not invented. It was a gradual
development, carefully and painstakingly plotted and planned out by some of the world’s
foremost scientists, not in a month or in a year, but over a period of more than 100 years of
research of testing and of small-scale applications until, with its adoption at Scotland Yard in
1901, stood forth as the greatest method of identification in the world.

Development of Fingerprinting in the Philippines

The use of fingerprints in the Philippines started in the year 1900. It was through the
Americans that the science of fingerprints was introduced in the Philippines.

It was Garry Jones who taught the science of fingerprints in the Philippines sometime in
the year 1900. Geneso Reyes was the first Filipino fingerprint technician employed by the
Philippine Constabulary (now Philippine National Police). Isabela Bernales was the first
Filipina Fingerprint Technician (Manlusoc, 2008 p. 5).

Republic Act No. 409 established the Criminal Records and Identification Division
(CRID) at the Manila Police Department (MPD) in the 1900.

During World War II, the MPD records were destroyed. The division was reestablished
in 1945 by the U.S. Army and the Henry System adopted.

The NBI presently uses the Henry System with modifications. Commonwealth Act No.
181, dated November 13, 1936 provided for the establishment of the Division of Investigation
(D.I.) which authorized the use of the Fingerprint Identification System.

Republic Act No. 157 abolished the Division of Investigation (DI) on June 19, 1947 and
at the same time created the Bureau of Investigation (BI). Subsequently, the BI was renamed
National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) pursuant to Executive Order No. 94, Section 63, dated
October 4, 1947.

However, during the American occupation of the Philippines prior to the declaration of
Philippine Independence in 1946, a modern and complete fingerprint files was established in the
Division under the management of Lt. Asa N. Darby.

The fingerprint records from the defunct Division of Investigation and Bureau of
Investigation formed part of the present fingerprint files of the National Bureau of Investigation.
The files were further boosted with the turnover to the NBI records of Filipino nationals with the
Allied Forces in Western Pacific Command (AFWESPAC) after the end of World War II.
 It was Capt. Thomas Dugan of the New York Police Department (NYPD) and Flaviano
C. Guererro, a Filipino member of the FBI provided for the establishment of fingerprint usage
in the NBI in the Philippines (Montojo, 2006 Lesson 1.8).

Reorganization Act No. 1407 was the law that created the Bureau of Prisons (now
Bureau of Corrections or BuCor.) on 01 November 1905. At that time, the Bertillon System of
identification was in use. In 1910, the Bureau of Prisons started using fingerprint system as a
means of identification for inmates.

Generoso La Torre was the first Chief of the Identification Section (CIS) of the Bureau
of Prisons from 1905 to 1920. Lt. George M. Wolfe was the first Director of the Bureau of
Prisons from 1909 to 1910. He taught the fingerprint system to Mr. La Torre.

Later in 1915, La Torre went to Chicago, USA, to further his knowledge on

fingerprinting system. There he met Mr. T. Dickerson Cooke, a fingerprint expert, who later
founded the Institute of Applied Science in 1916, a correspondence school that specializes in the
study of fingerprints. Upon his return, La Torre encouraged his subordinates to enroll in this
school to get the much needed local expertise at that time.

Other police forces in the country started introducing the fingerprints system in their
respective departments. As a result, there was, and still is, a great demand for police officers
trained in the field of fingerprint classification and identification. So, the NBI started offering
trainings on fingerprint system for police officers as well as civilians.

As of July 2003, the NBI has about 16 million fingerprint cards on file while the Western
Police District (WPD), about 1.5 million and the Bureau of Corrections about 400,000.
(Montojo, 2006 Lesson 1.8).

The Plaridel Education Institution (now known as the Philippine College of

Criminology-Manila Law College or PCCr-MLC) was the first government recognized school
to teach the science of fingerprint and other police sciences in the Philippines.