The Bertillon System of Identification
Administrative Advanced Latent Fingerprints
98th Session
01-12-04 through 01-30-04
FBI Academy, Quantico Virginia 22135
Instructor: Robert D. Moran
Charlie Brogdon
Tarrant County Sheriff�s Office
300 W. Belknap
Ft. Worth Texas 76102
Alphonse M. Bertillon (1853/1914)
Alphonse M. Bertillon is credited as the creator of the Bertillon system of
identification also known as Bertillonage or Anthropometry. The system,
which was intended to improve the odds of correct identification of
prisoners, involved measuring eleven points on the human body.
Recording them along with clear photographs for comparison and detailed
notes regarding scars or visible skin defects should the person return to jail.
Bertillon devised the system while working for the Paris police prefecture.
He began his employment in 1879 as a clerk in the criminal records section.
Alphonse Bertillon was struck by the poor quality control utilized by the
records section in the taking and filing identification photos �mug shots�
along with other criminal records. He felt there was a strong probability that
criminals were coming to jail repeatedly and not being properly identified.
This would create problems with wanted persons not being recognized and
numerous criminal records being created for the same person.
Bertillon improved the system in place at the time in two areas. The creation
of a filing system, which would revolutionize the criminal, records section of
the Paris police and improving the photo identification system in place.
In 1879 he wrote numerous reports about the disarray in the
criminal records filing methods of the Paris police prefecture and got the
attention of the prefect himself. Prefect Louis Andrieux could not believe
the reports from Bertillon and threatened to fire him for his alarmist attitude.
Bertillon defended himself by producing the Prefect�s own personnel record
and pointing out the massive inconsistencies, even the Prefect�s date of birth
was incorrect. The Prefect relented and Bertillon organized the records.
By 1882 the new Prefect (Camescasse) recognized Bertillon�s organizational
skills and decided to grant him a staff consisting of two clerks. He then gave
Bertillon three months to devise a reliable method for identifying repeat
visitors to the Paris Jail. Bertillon recalled a �metric study� he conducted
while in the military and felt the key to his new system could be based on
the premise that human bones are generally mature by age twenty.
With the proper tools, could be measured consistently by a person of
ordinary intelligence. There were complaints from critics that the system
was too complex and required personnel with specialized skill.
At the end of the three-month trial Bertillon and his staff measured 589
suspects and of those identified 49 repeat offenders.
The human classification system was a success and Bertillon named the
system Anthropometry.
By 1888 Bertillon worked in a division of the Prefecture called the
Department of Judicial Identity, which used anthropometry as the primary
identification system on the upper floors of the Palais de Justice.
By 1894 he was named Chief of the Department of Judicial Identity for the
Paris police prefecture. There were over five million Bertillon Cards on file
at this time. Compare this with the current ten print records on file at the
Texas Department of Public Safety, which has approximately eight million
cards stored in it�s Automated Identification System (2).
The Bertillon system consisted of three subdivisions:
1. Anthropometrical, which involves measuring, with precision and
under prescribed conditions, some of the most characteristic
dimensions of the bony structures of the body;
2. Descriptive information, body shape and observed movements and
noticeable characteristics of mental and moral qualities; and
3. Signalment by peculiar marks, or peculiarities occurring on the
surface of the body as a result of disease, accident, deformity or
accidental disfigurement (3).
The careful measurement of eleven points of the human body was
accomplished utilizing specialized equipment. The measurements were
taken in a careful and consistent manner under strict guidelines established
by Alphonse Bertillon.
When conducting the measurement procedure, Bertillon thought it beneficial
to keep the suspect calm and instructed his staff to be polite and not to
discuss the details of the criminal case with the individual. They would
speak of current events or the weather but never delve into the arrest details.
Bertillon believed the detainee would also be less likely to create problems if
he was seated and without shoes and treated with respect. As the goal of his
examination was detailed measurements, he knew their cooperation was
important for the sake of accuracy (1). The filing system first divided the
person into one of three categories based on size, and then divided them
further with specific measurements of points on the body (5).
Measurements included:
Height; length of arms outstretched; torso height; length of the head; width
of the head; length of the right ear; width of the right ear; length of left foot;
distance between left elbow and tip of middle finger; the length of the left
middle finger.
The measurements were transposed into a numerical classification that could
be filed, searched and retrieved. The process, which was simple in
Bertillon�s description, took three technicians seven minutes from start to
finish (1).
Photography was a major facet of the system, a front and right side profile
were taken much the same as many police departments use today. Bertillon
was of the belief that a clear photo would help determine if persons of
similar measurements were indeed one in the same. The front and right
profiles were then added to the subject�s measurement card.
Bertillon calculated the probability of two people having the same
measurements at one in four million.
Anthropometry in North America was so widely accepted within the police
community that by 1897 the International Association of Chiefs of Police
established the National Bureau of Identification in Chicago Illinois to be the
central storage and retrieval depot for criminal records. The cost was shared
by the organizations who used it. Records were classified and stored under
Bertillon�s Anthropometric system. In Canada the Identification of
Criminals act was passed into law June 13 1898, which sanctioned the use of
the Bertillon system by Canadian police forces(4).
At the height of the Bertillon system�s use, around 1901 Glasgow police
chief William Douglas commented that the genius of Bertillon has
triumphed and his system is very near absolute perfection. Bertillon was so
revered by the French government he was made a Chevalier in France�s
Legion of Honor. He even created a small portable variant of his equipment
For field use dubbed �le pocket parle� which was handy for rooting out
revolutionaries in a crowd of demonstrators (5). This system was the
forerunner of the field interview system currently in use by law enforcement
agencies.
The Will West / William West Case;
According to The Outline of Fingerprint History published by the Federal
Bureau of investigation, the case of Will West and William West was an
event that the Bertillon system never recovered. The case involved two men
in the federal prison in Leavenworth Kansas who bore nearly identical
Bertillon scores and facial features were also the same. By many accounts,
including the Federal Bureau of Investigation�s �Outline�, the two men were
then fingerprinted and the prints were different and this marked the
fallibility of the Bertillon system. There is at least one account that states
that Leavenworth Prison switched to fingerprints, over Bertillon the very
next day (8). This does not however appear to be accurate. According to
Robert Olsen�s Study of the event, it played no part in the downfall of the
Bertillon system.
In fact Leavenworth Prison not only continued to use the Bertillon
method for another year, replacing it with fingerprints due to the ease of use
and convenience. Learning about it from John Ferrier at the St. Louis
World�s Fair in 1904. Leavenworth Prison began using fingerprints for
identification as of November 2nd 1904.
Will and William West were fingerprinted for the first time on October 19th
1905, over two years after the date of the so-called failure of the Bertillon
system (7). This coupled with the fact that there is no mention of the West
case in any format for another 18 yrs would tend to discredit the FBI�s
version of the case. Which is the alleged cause of the failure of the
Bertillon system and calls into question why the FBI continues to teach this
information as fact (6).
Alphonse Bertillon has impacted modern police identification. Most notably,
his system for taking identification photographs that is still the model used
by police agencies to this day. Considering the lack of a reliable human
identification system prior to 1879 and the statistical successes of the
Bertillon system in general, the Bertillon system can hardly be called a
failure. The system was replaced by fingerprint identification, which is
more efficient and provides a means of identification which is absolutely
positive, compared to Bertillon�s figures which theorized the system to be
accurate to only one in four million (1).
Bibliography
(1) Parry, Eugenia: Crime Album Stories. Germany, SCALO Publishing 2000
(2) Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Records Service, Austin Texas 2004
(3) Journal of Forensic Identification Volume 43 Issue:6 Dated: ( November / December1993) Pages: 585-602
(4) Ashbaugh, David: Quantitative Qualitative Friction Ridge Analysis An Introduction to Basic and Advanced Ridgeology Page 34, CRC Press 2000
(5) Discovery Online, Dead Inventors�Alphonse Bertillon By Patrick J. Kiger Tacoma Park Maryland
(6) Federal Bureau of Investigation: Outline of the History of Fingerprints Washington D. C. 1977
(7) Robert D. Olsen, The Will and William West Case Fact or Fable Journal of Forensic Identification Volume 37 Number 11, 1987
(8) University of Missouri: On-line facts Bertillon a case for fingerprint Identification.
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