Mr.
Schiff: Hi, welcome to "FBI 100, A Closer
Look." I'm Neal Schiff of the Bureau's Office
of Public Affairs along with FBI Historian Dr.
John Fox. John, over the past 99 years the FBI
has been in business, millions of criminal fingerprint
cards have been filed?
Dr.
Fox: "In the beginning of the Bureau, actually
another system was more prevelant. It was called
the Bertillon system and it consisted of taking
exacting measurements of hundreds of aspects of
an individuals' body in the hope that it would
identify that person uniquely. But of course it
didn't. In fact, in 1903 at Leavenworth Penitentiary,
a man was brought in. His measurements were taken.
They compared them to their files and found out
that they had already arrested someone with those
exact same measurements who had the exact same
name. Turned out there were two people; same name;
same measurerments. The system wasn't unique.
That's why they moved to fingerprints. Of course,
today we're approaching 50,000,000 fingerprint
records."
Mr.
Schiff: For years police departments sent
fingerprint cards into the FBI and they were looked
at by humans.?
Dr.
Fox: "Absolutely. But more recently of course
we've moved to computers which greatly speeded
up the process."
Mr.
Schiff: From the FBI's Public Affairs office,
along with Bureau Historian Dr. John Fox, I'm
Neal Schiff with "FBI 100, A Closer Look."
FBI
100: A Closer Look sound bytes