Fingerprinting: History

In 1822, Gilbert Thompson (of the U.S. Geological Survey in New Mexico) used his thumbprint on a document to prevent forgery. This was the first known use of fingerprinting in the U.S. It was a receipt issued by Thompson to “Lying Bob” for 75 dollars.

In 1888, Sir Francis Galton (a British anthropologist) began his observations of fingerprints as a tactic for identification.

In 1892, Juan Vucetich made the first criminal fingerprint identification. He identified a woman named Francis Rojas, who killed her two sons (and cut her own throat to place the blame on someone else) She left bloody prints on a door post, which proved her as the murderer. Galton’s interest in fingerprinting was an aid in finding heredity and racial backgrounds. He was able to scientifically prove fingerprints don’t change throughout a person’s life and that no two prints are the same. He identified the characteristics on how prints can be identified and some of the same characteristics are still used today. (called Galton Details)

In 1903, The New York State Prison system began the first organized use of fingerprints for criminals in the U.S.

In 1905, The U.S. Army began using fingerprints and the U.S. Department of Justice form the Bureau of Criminal Identification in Washington, DC to offer a centralized reference assortment of fingerprint cards. Two years later the U.S. Navy started as well as the Marine Corps the next year. Over the next 25 years many law enforcement agencies joined in using fingerprinting as a means of personal identification.

By 1946, the FBI had 100 million fingerprints in manually maintained files and by 1971 there were 200 million cards. The automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS) split the flies into computerized criminal flies and manually maintained civil files. Many of the manual files were repeats, but the records represented somewhere around 25 to 30 million criminals and an unknown amount of people in the civil files.

In 1977 the world’s first certified team of fingerprint experts called the IAI’s Latent Print Certification Board. They’re considered by many identification professionals to be a measurement of excellence.

In 2005, INTERPOL’s Automated Fingerprint Identification System repository exceeds 50,000 sets of fingerprints.

Now, in 2011 the largest AFIS repository in the U.S. is operated by the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Visit Program, which has over 100 million fingerprints. All U.S. states have their own AFIS databases with fingerprint records stored. Fingerprints are used very commonly in many criminal cases today.