Alphonse Bertillon
By Illa Vij

CRIME is as old as man and over the years new methods of identifying and tracking criminals have been evolved. Over a 100 years ago, a brilliant detective named Alphonse Bertillon invented certain methods of tracking down criminals which are still used by police forces all over the world. He became so famous that once a New York publisher travelled all the way to Paris, where Bertillon was appointed as Director of the Identity Department of the French Prefecture of Police, and offered him a dollar a word for his memoirs. Alphonse knew that he could make a fortune but declined the offer saying that he had no time. He spent all his time devising methods to reduce crime.

Alphonse was born in 1853. His father was a doctor in Paris. Alphonse was never a good student and later lost many jobs. He came to be looked down on as the black sheep of the family. During a compulsory military service term, he found time to attend an evening medical school. Here he studied human skulls and skeletons. He concluded that no two human beings measured exactly the same.

When Bertillon’s term with the military ended, he took up a job as a lowly auxiliary clerk in the prefecture of police headquarters in Paris. His work involved writing details of criminals, so that they could be detected in case they turned up again. (Punishment varied with the number of crimes and terms of imprisonment). But the generalities he was asked to maintain were not good enough to track or identify a criminal. His study of anatomy gave him a brilliant idea. He had found that between the ages of 20 and 60, certain parts of the human body normally remain the same. He realised that 20 distinctive parts of the ear alone could help identify thousands of criminals. Within eight months, he worked out a chart of 11 unalterable features of the human body and called this system "anthropometry".

Bertillon presented his work to the Police Prefect, but it was rejected as a piece of rubbish. Alphonse waited for three years for the next Police Prefect. Patience paid and Alphonse was given a chance to prove his work. Each criminal was scrutinised, measured carefully and a special emphasis was laid on the facial features. A series of glass plate photographs were taken. All information with photographs was classified and filed. Within the next few months, Bertillon’s method proved to be useful. He caught a burglar who had been arrested two months earlier for another burglary. He had altered his nose, but his bone structure and other body measurements gave him away. In the first year, 49 repeaters were identified.

Bertillon’s system was officially accepted and he became chief of the new Identity Department. His method helped in keeping a track of criminals who tried to dupe the police by murdering someone and getting themselves declared dead. Soon other countries too began to adopt his method. For his help with identity work in Russia and Britain, Tsar Nicholas II gifted him a gold and pearl clock. The Queen awarded him with a medal. Other countries, including Sweden and Austria, also honoured him. Besides finding the system of anthropometry, he was the first to stress on the importance of photographing the scene of a crime.

He worked out many ways and used logic to solve mysterious cases. He did not invent finger-printing but brought it into great use in the detection of crime. In a case, when Bertillon’s measurement system failed, it was the fingerprints of the accused that solved the case. Thereafter, fingerprints of all 10 fingers of the individuals were also added to the details filed. He introduced finger-print photography and also perfected a white powder for picking up prints. Soon identification by finger prints became a widely used method of tracking criminals. Bertillon gave us a safer world and died in 1914, at the age of 61.