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“Every Contact

– A History of FingerprintingLeaves a Trace”

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IntroductionFor just over 100 years, police forces within theUnited Kingdom have had possession of apowerful tool in the fight against crime – the useof fingerprinting for identification.

Fingerprints provide anextremely reliable means ofidentification. The system isbased on the fact that notwo individuals have thesame finger, palm orfootprints. These areas ofthe human body are coveredby minute ridges frequentlyinterrupted by endings orforks. These interruptionsare known as characteristics. Each person has auniquely different distribution of characteristics thatdevelop in the womb and persist throughout life.They even remain unchanged some time after death,making the recognition of corpses possible.

It has been known for people to try and alter ordestroy their prints by cutting their fingertips orburning the skin with acid, but such attempts areusually not successful. Minor skin damage is easilyrepaired by the body, so that the same ridgesreappear in the new skin. Even if major scarring iscaused, the rest of the hand will still leave the sameprints, while the scars themselves form a newidentifying mark.

What is a fingerprint?Our skin is composed of two layers, theepidermis and the dermis. The epidermis is thethinner of the two layers and serves as a toughprotective covering. The dermis is the thickerlayer of skin which lies protected under theepidermis, and contains the sweat andsebaceous glands.

This cross-sectional diagram of the skin shows theSweat Gland, which releases sweat consisting ofwater, salt and urea, and the Sebaceous Gland, whichreleases oils on to the surface of the skin. Theproducts of these two glands constitute a fingerprint,a mark that is left when we touch something.

Fingerprints can be visible when our fingers are dirtyor oily, or latent, when they are made only by thesweat that is always present on our finger ridges.Latent fingerprints are difficult to see but can be madevisible for identification.

Any fingerprint left at a crime scene is known as alatent fingerprint. Latent fingerprints may be left onalmost all surfaces, sometimes even on human skin.Numerous techniques are used to make latent printsvisible, such as lasers, powders and alternate lightsources.

A Fingerprint

Cross-sectional diagram of the skin

Comparison of Inked and Latent Fingerprints

“Every Contact Leaves a Trace”– A History of Fingerprinting

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Fingerprints and CrimeFingerprints from the scene of a crime must bematched with a set already on file. If a suspecthas never been convicted of a crime before,there will be no record of their fingerprints forcomparison. This is why a suspect isfingerprinted when charged. If there are 16points of similarity with the fingerprint found atthe scene of a crime, this can be presented asevidence in court.

In the example above, the finger impression left onthe window fixed the identity of a burglar.He subsequently pleaded guilty and was sentenced tofive years imprisonment.

The 8 Basic Fingerprint PatternsThe study of fingerprints is known asDACTYLOSCOPY.

The lines on a fingerprint represent the ridges of theskin and the white spaces are the furrows. You cansee that some ridges end abruptly, some fork or cross,and some ridges are lakes or islands. These are called“ridge characteristics” and the study of these ridgecharacteristics is the means by which fingerprintidentification is determined.

There are 8 standard patterns which are used toclassify fingerprints:

A COMPOSITE print occurs when combinations ofthe ARCH, LOOP and WHORL are found in the sameprint. Examples of composite prints are CentralPockets, Lateral Pockets, Twinned Loops andAccidentals.

Catching the Criminals – A Timelineof Fingerprinting

Prehistoric cave wall etchings found in Nova Scotia,Canada, showed a hand with ridge patternssketched on it in a crude manner. Fingerprintswere used on clay tablets in business transactionsin Ancient Babylon and in China a contract of loan,known to be 1200 years old, showed a fingerimpression at the end of a signature. This indicatedthat man knew of the significance of such patternsthousands of years before their potential wasrealised.

In Ancient Rome, Quintilian, an attorney, showedthat bloody palm prints were meant to frame ablind man for his mother’s murder.

In 14th Century Persia government papers of theday featured impressions of fingerprints.

In 1684 Dutch Botanist Dr Nehemia Grew wrote apaper on his observations of patterns of the fingersand palms and the arrangements of sweat poresand epidermal ridges. He referred to the sweatpores as “little fountains” not knowing that theywould later be used in identifying criminals at crimescenes.

One of the etchings found at Nova Scotia

Marcello Malpighi

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In 1686 Marcello Malpighi, a Professor of Anatomyat Bologna University in Italy, carried out researchwork on fingerprints. A layer of human skin wasnamed after him. Crucially however, Malpighi failedto make the link between fingerprints and their useas a means of identification.

In 1818 Thomas Bewick, an English engraver,author and naturalist used engravings of his ownfingerprints to identify his work. A caption addedto one of his carvings – “Thomas Bewick – hismark” is so faithfully reproduced that it is possiblethat Bewick was one of the first to recognise theindividuality of a fingerprint.

Johannes E Purkinje, Professor of Anatomy atBreslau University in Germany, presented a thesisin 1823 in which he described nine types of fingerpatterns. However like Marcello Malpighi beforehim, he did not suggest any use for personalidentification.

In 1858 Sir William Herschel, a member of theIndian Civil Service, had for some time beeninterested in fingerprints as a means of identifyingone individual from another. During this period ofhis career he was responsible for the payment ofallowances to pensioned Indian soldiers and hadgreat difficulty preventing impersonation. He begantaking fingerprints from each soldier as he was paid

and found he could distinguish the genuineclaimants from the fake, which abruptly stoppedany unfair practices.

Herschel was the first man to realise the persistencyof fingerprints throughout life.

The Principle of PersistencySir William Herschel carried out tests andexperiments over a period of sixty years toestablish the principle of persistency.

The principle of persistency states that fingerprintsare formed during early foetal life, they remainconstant throughout life and are one of the lastrecognisable features to disappear after death.

Early Foetal LifeRidges begin to form on the human foetus betweenthe third and fifth months of pregnancy when thefoetus is approximately 3” – 4” in length.

Remain ConstantRidges, patterns and ridge detail grow simultaneouslywith the general growth of the body but they persistwithout change throughout life.

After DeathRidges possess the peculiar property of remainingintact after death, outlasting most other features ofthe body and may remain recordable until the fleshreaches a state of advanced decomposition.

However, although Herschel advocated the use offingerprints for personal records of prisoners, henever formulated any method of arriving at a systemof classification. The Bengal Government failed tograsp the potential of fingerprints in Herschel’s reportto them and it was not introduced until later.

In 1880, Dr Henry Faulds, a Scottish Physician,wrote an article in the journal “Nature” suggestingthat fingerprints would be useful as a technique forinvestigation of evidence left at a scene of crime.

Johannes E Purkinje

William Herschel

Dr Henry Faulds

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“Nature,” October 28th 1880Faulds used fingerprints to eliminate an innocentsuspect and indict a perpetrator in a Tokyoburglary in one of the first ever recorded uses offingerprints to solve a crime.

Today Henry Faulds is known as the “father offingerprinting”, however he went to his grave withoutreceiving this recognition, and was not given thecredit due him until the late 20th Century.

Alphonse Bertillon, a clerk in the Prefecture ofPolice of Paris, devised a system of classification ofmeasurement of various parts of the body.The system was known as ANTHROPOMETRYand was taken into use in 1882.

In 1888 Bertillon was made chief of the newly createdDepartment of Judicial Identity where he usedanthropometry as the main means of identification.He later introduced fingerprints but relegated them toa secondary role in the category of special marks.

Anthropometry, however, was flawed as it waspossible to have almost identical body measurementsand dissimilar fingerprints. Although Bertillon wasinvolved in the first recorded case of a convictionusing fingerprints in Paris in 1902, he still maintainedthat anthropometry was the superior system andrefused to accede long after other countriesabandoned it in favour of fingerprinting techniques.

Sir Francis Galton published several works onfingerprints during his lifetime (1822-1911), and tookgreat interest in establishing their uniqueness. Hismost important book, published in 1892, was the firstcomprehensive account of the nature of fingerprintsand their use in solving crime. In it he attempted tocalculate the improbability of two people having thesame fingerprints and defined the basic patterns usedin present day methods of fingerprint classification.He identified the minutiae in fingerprints and theyhave since been referred to as GALTON DETAILSor ridge characteristics.

First Fingerprint Bureau 1892In 1892 Juan Vucetich of the provincial police inBuenos Aires, was ordered by the Chief of Police inLa Plata to establish a “Bertillonage System” and atthe same time to study Galton’s ground-breakingwork on fingerprints. Subsequently Vucetich set upthe world’s first Fingerprint Classification Bureau.

First Criminal IdentificationUsing Fingerprints, 1892

In 1892, Francesca Rojas of Buenos Aires was found ina house with neck injuries, whilst her two sons werefound dead with their throats cut. Rojas accused aneighbour but despite brutal interrogation he wouldnot confess to the crimes.

Inspector Alvarez, a colleague of Vucetich, went tothe scene and found a bloody thumb mark on a door.When compared with Rojas’ prints it was found to beidentical with her right thumb. She confessed to themurders and was eventually sentenced toimprisonment.

This landmark case resulted in Argentina becomingthe first country to replace anthropometry withfingerprints.

Fingerprint Department,New Scotland Yard, 1901

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When bloody fingerprints or impressionson clay, glass etc exist, they may lead tothe scientific identification of criminals.Although I have had experience in twosuch cases ..... There can be no doubt asto the advantage of having, beside theirphotograph, a copy of the foreverunchangeable finger furrows ofimportant criminals.

Sir Francis Galton Sir Edward Henry

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In 1896, Sir Edward Henry, who like Herschel, wasalso a member of the Indian Civil Service,experimented with the anthropometric system andthumb prints and eventually arranged for fingerprintsof convicted criminals to be taken and set out todevise a classification system. He was assisted by twoof his staff, Azinzul Haque and Chandra Bose and in1897 Henry persuaded the Indian Government toadopt his system nationally.

As a result of public disquiet caused by mistakenidentities and wrongful convictions in Great Britain, aCommittee was set up under Lord Belper in 1900 tolook into the problems of personal identification forpolice purposes. The Committee evaluated therelative merits of the anthropometric system inventedby Bertillon and the fingerprint system devised byHenry. They decided strongly in favour of thefingerprint system and it was subsequently introducedinto New Scotland Yard in July 1901.

Sir Edward Henry was recalled from India and laterbecame Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in1903. Eventually the system was adopted by the restof the European countries and the Commonwealth.

First Fingerprint Evidence in England, 1902The first fingerprint evidence involving a scene ofcrime mark in England was heard at the CentralCriminal Court on 13th September 1902. HenryJackson pleaded not guilty to a charge of burglary of ahouse at Denmark Hill, South London and stealingbilliard balls on 27th June 1902. Detective SergeantCollins examined the scene and an imprint ofJackson’s left thumb was found in dirt on a newlypainted window-sill.

A famous barrister of the time, Richard Muir, wasappointed to conduct the prosecution case. Collinsexplained the system and produced photographicenlargements and tracings of both mark and print.Jackson was found guilty and sentenced to seven yearspenal servitude.

Fingerprinting Introduced to GlamorganConstabulary, 1903

Inspector Steadman from the Metropolitan Police wasfirst introduced to the Chief Constable of theGlamorganshire Constabulary, Sir Lionel Lindsay, bySergeant Bingham of Cardiff City. Steadmansubsequently visited Chief Constable Lionel Lindsayduring the summer of 1903 and persuaded him tointroduce the “Henry” fingerprinting system.

First Use of Fingerprinting Evidence in aMurder Trial in England, 1905

Fingerprinting evidence was first used in a case ofmurder in 1905 at the Central Criminal Court. Alfredand Albert Stratton pleaded not guilty to the murderof Mr and Mrs Farrow at their shop in Deptford.

During examination of the scene an impression wasfound on a cash box. Inspector Collins gave evidencein this case and explained the identification systemwith the aid of a blackboard and photographicenlargements of the impression from the cash boxand the right thumb of Alfred Stratton. Theprosecution was again conducted by Richard Muir, andthe jury found the Strattons guilty. They were laterhanged.

1920 saw the publication of the landmark book“E’enquete criminelle et les methodes scientifique”by Edmund Locard, director of the first crimelaboratory, in Lyon, France. The book followed onfrom his success two years previously in 1918when he became the first person to suggest 12matching points as a positive fingerprintidentification.

In the book, Locard stated his “Exchange Principle,”the idea that when contact is made between twoitems there will always be an exchange. Locardargued that the perpetrator of a crime will bringsomething into the crime scene and leave withsomething from the crime scene:

Chief Constable Lionel Lindsay

Edmund Locard

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“E’enquete criminelle et lesmethodes scientifique” 1920Hence the forensic precept:

In 1930, Henry Battley as Chief Inspector in chargeof the Fingerprint Branch at Scotland Yard, deviseda single fingerprint system, used extensivelythroughout the world.

Scientific developments in the 1930s resulted inCardiff City Constabulary establishing a forensicscience laboratory which included a Black Museum.Sadly none of the exhibits have survived, but thelaboratory itself moved to Chepstow as theregional centre for forensic investigations.

1950 saw the invention of the tape lift method ofcollecting fingerprint and other trace evidence byMax Frei-Sulzer, founder of the first Swisscriminalistics laboratory.

In 1952, the Glamorgan Constabulary established aFingerprinting Department.

Small highly specialised cameras were used to copyfingerprints which were made all the more visible bypolice technicians who dusted them first withaluminium powder.

Seven years later in 1959, a Criminal Record Officewas established in Bridgend where records such asfingerprints were kept.

Automatic Fingerprint Recognition (AFR)

In the mid 1960s a Research and Developmentprogramme was started to produce an AFR Systemwhich could automatically scan fingerprints, recognisethe position and relationships of ridge characteristicsand store these unique points of comparison forsearching purposes. Each comparison made by theAFR system generates a score, with the size of thescore reflecting the degree of similarity detected.

The first AFR system was installed in the Scenes ofCrime Branch at New Scotland Yard in January 1984,and live working commenced in August of that year.

In 1992, the majority of police forces in England andWales formed a Consortium to introduce AFR intotheir bureaux. Each member of the Consortium hadthe ability to search every other members’ fingerprintcollection as well as their own.

In 1976, Fuseo Matsumur, a trace evidenceexaminer at the Saga Prefectural Crime Laboratoryof the National Police Agency of Japan, noticed hisown fingerprints developing on microscope slidesas he mounted hairs from a taxi driver murder.Matsumur informed his co-worker Masato Soba,a latent print examiner, of this.

Later that same year Soba became the first person todevelop latent fingerprints, fingerprints left at a crimescene that are difficult to see, by “Superglue” fuming.Superglue contains a compound known ascyanoacrylate. When fingerprints are placed in a tankcontaining superglue which is being heated, thecyanoacrylate reacts with the water that is left in theprint. This results in the production of a white mark.This mark can then be dyed with Gentian Violet toenhance the fingerprint and aid identification.

Police National Computer (PNC)Live working of the Police National ComputerFingerprint Application began in 1976, and thenational system for searching crime marks on PNCwas introduced in 1980.

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Wherever he steps, whatever he touches,whatever he leaves will serve as a silentwitness against him.

‘‘ ’’Every contact leaves a trace.

DC 619 Alan Roberts photographing fingerprints at theBritish Oxygen plant in Penarth in the 1960s

Computerised Fingerprinting Revolutionised Policing

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Genetic Fingerprinting

Genetic Fingerprinting, developed by Professor AlecJeffries at the University of Leicester in 1984, hasbeen a vital recent development in the fight againstcrime. Like conventional fingerprinting, it canaccurately distinguish humans from one another, withthe exception of identical siblings from multiple births.It can be applied to as little material as a single cell.

The Cardiff Body in the Carpet Murder, 1989

In 1989 builders working in the back garden of aderelict house in Cardiff discovered the badlydecomposed body of a female murder victimwrapped in a piece of old carpet.

The skull was used to make a facial reconstructionand the teeth compared to dental records todetermine the age of the victim when she died.However there was little other evidence that could beused in identification.

Entomologists (insect experts) examined a colony ofwoodlice and bluebottle fly eggs present within thesoil to establish how long the body had been buriedand at what time of year the murder had occurred.The results of this concluded that the body had beenburied ten years previously.

The response from the facial reconstruction suggestedthat the body was that of Karen Price, a local 15 yearold girl who had disappeared in 1981. Dental recordswere also consistent with this.

To enable someone to be charged with Karen’smurder, identification of the body had to beconclusive. South Wales Police contacted ProfessorJeffries and Dr Hagelberg of Leicester University toassist with DNA genetic fingerprinting analysis. DNAwas extracted from Karen’s skeletal remains andcompared with that of her living parents. The testsshowed that the likelihood of the body being Karen’swas greater than 99.99%.

This evidence together with other forensic anddetective work carried out by South Wales Policeresulted in the conviction of two men – Idris Ali andAlan Charlton for the murder of Karen Pricesometime between 1st July 1981 and 1st May 1982.

National Automatic Fingerprint IdentificationSystem (NAFIS)

In 1995 the Home Office awarded a contract to theAmerican Company TRW to provide a NationalAutomatic Fingerprint Identification System for allPolice forces in England and Wales. This enables everypolice force in England and Wales to search scene ofcrime marks against the National FingerprintCollection.

Professor Alec Jeffries

The First DNA Fingerprint

The Reconstructed Head of Murder Victim, Karen Price

Karen Price

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Interactive with the most recent PNC applicationknown as Phoenix, it identifies criminals and providesintelligence, for example by linking crimes to identifyseries of crimes.

National DNA Library Opened, 19951995 saw the opening of the first DNA nationaldatabase library in Birmingham. Here sophisticatednew methods are being developed using DNAtechnology. One technique can already identify thecolour of a suspect’s hair, and in the future skin,colour and facial characteristics may becomedetectable.

South Wales Police Legacy Cases solvedthrough DNA technology, 2001

In 2001 Genetic Fingerprinting successfully resolvedfour high-profile legacy murders in the South WalesPolice Force area – Geraldine Palk of Cardiff andPauline Floyd, Geraldine Hughes and Sandra Newtonof Llandarcy.

In the case of Geraldine Palk, her killer had evadedthe mass DNA swabbing exercise carried out inCardiff during the decade after her death in 1989.However random DNA tests on inmates at DartmoorPrison in 2001 led police to Hampson who wasnearing the end of his four-year sentence for assault.Hampson was taken to Fairwater Police Station forquestioning, and was eventually charged withGeraldine’s murder.At the time of Geraldine’s death scientists would haveneeded a sample of blood or semen the size of a 5ppiece before being able to draw definite conclusions.Dependable results can be obtained today from asingle skin flake, piece of dandruff or dab of saliva.

Innovative use of the National DNA Database(NDNA) enabled scientists from the Forensic ScienceService (FSS) to help South Wales Police solve a triplemurder case dating back 30 years. Teenagers PaulineFloyd, Geraldine Hughes and Sandra Newton had

been raped and strangled in 1973 but any attempts tolink DNA samples from the crime scenes to theNational DNA Database had drawn a blank.

Given that the killer may never have committedanother crime and therefore would not be listed onthe NDNAB, had possibly moved abroad or evendied, the NDNAB was used instead to look forsomeone with a similar DNA profile who could berelated to the killer. The search produced 100 men.This intelligence, combined with existing informationheld by South Wales Police, led to one local manbecoming a strong suspect. Joseph Kappen, who wasdeceased, was exhumed in May 2002 and tests on hisremains matched his DNA profile with that of thebodies of his victims.

In 2012, some 25 years on from the discovery ofDNA Genetic Fingerprinting by Professor Jeffries ofLeicester University, South Wales Police opened astate-of-the-art Scientific Support Unit at PoliceHeadquarters in Bridgend.

The decision to construct the building was influencedby the need to bring together three departments withstrategically linked functions but which were currentlysplit between Cardiff, Bridgend Police Station andPolice Headquarters - the Fingerprint bureau, PNCbureau and the remainder of Scientific Support.

The building placed South Wales Police at the fore-front of forensic policing, and symbolised ChiefConstable Miss Barbara Wilding’s commitment toinvest in modern technology as a means to best servethe communities of South Wales.

Geraldine Palk

The New Scientific Support Unit at South WalesPolice Headquarters in Bridgend

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Notes

South Wales PoliceSouth Wales Police Headquarters

Cowbridge Road, Bridgend CF31 3SU

Email: info@south-wales.pnn.police.ukTelephone: 01656 869291

Visit our website at www.south-wales.police.uk

Designed and Printed by South Wales Police Print Department.