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 The fact that every person has unique fingerprints has been known since very early in our history. The Assyrian Empire, which was located in the present Arab world in the approximate position of present day Iraq. This empire was founded approximately between 1813 and 1780 BC. The Assyrians developed an extensive legal and commercial system and used fingerprint impressions for signing legal documents. The Chinese also used fingerprints for signing legal documents very early in their history. Fingerprints as an identification system next enter the historical record with the proposal by Czech physiologist Johannes Evangelista Purkinje in 1823. Purkinje’s proposal to use fingerprints was ignored by the science and legal world. The modern system of fingerprint classification was proposed by a British scientist Sir Francis Galton. He presented his system in a detailed study in the late nineteenth century. Mark Twain was undoubtedly influenced by Mr. Galton’s work when he wrote his classic novel, The Tragedy of Puddin’head Wilson, in 1894 in which fingerprinting plays a major role in the unmasking of a murderer. History’s first use of fingerprints as a criminal investigation system was developed by Sir Edward Richard Henry in the 1890’s in Bengal, India. Henry introduced the system into Great Britain in 1901 when he became Assistant Commissioner of Metropolitan Police. This fingerprint identification system gradually began to be used throughout Europe and the United States. It was found that natural oils on the skin would cause fingerprints to be left on any hard smooth surface. If this surface was subsequently dusted or chemically treated the invisible became visible and could be photographed. Modern forensics specialist uses a clear plastic tape-like substance to lift the print to be more easily used as evidence. In the United States early in the Twentieth Century many fingerprint archives were developed, leading to much confusion and inefficiency. The Federal Government in 1924 set up a central file in the Identification Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This division maintains a civil file and a criminal file. Modern police departments digitize the fingerprint images which are then stored in computerized filing systems. Now, using the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), police departments can check a fingerprint against a national database in a matter of hours. |