◆ SpookStack

Guarding Citizen and Business - Value of F; ingerprint | Records i in n Preventing : . Employment of Criminals under False Pre-~ _tenses and in Tracing Witnesses” came into widespread usage in law en- forcement work, that the general public has associated this indispensable means of identification with crime and criminals. | When considering the many identification bureaus throughout the world, the Identifica- tion Division of the United States Bureau of Investigation is recognized nationally and internationally as possessing the largest res- ervoir or source of criminal identifying data ‘in existence. . The Bureau has more: than 3.5176, 000 finger- prints and more than 4,696,000 index cards in its collections, involving about 2,550,000 different individuals. During the last fiscal year 573,731 fingerprint cards were received in the Bureau and 39 per cent of these were identified with prior records. -At this time nearly 2.200 additional cards are being re- ceived in the Bureau daily from more than - 5,800 contributing law enforcement agencies in the United States and foreign countries. This huge source of identification data, in addition to furnishing indispensable data for law enforcing agencies, also has additional uses which sre available to the individual. How can an employer defermine through the setvices of the Bureau if a prospective employe has a criminal record? How may « citizen determine the whereabouts of neces- sary witnesses or Prospective defendants in elvil sults? -- .* Moth oe. ee ee 440s: Set _ By JOHN EDGAR. HOOVER, Coe ge ' .- These questions represent ‘two phases ¢ of . the Bureau's work in the civil identification field. In addition to these uses, the records . of the Bureau are frequently of aid in identi- fying unknown deceased persons or amnesia victima, stk When the records contatried ‘in ‘the “Bue ““reau's files were found to possess such great | _ Value for criminal purposes, many law ene :' , reau of resign = . - = > oe ry ~ alo: . ae a+, ene Saran aes “ae x sat a ws ag oe ON. oe -* at Lee . "+ Director, United States Bureau of Investigation Sot 18 PROBABLY because fingerprints first | forcement agencies initiated the practice ‘ot ‘ routing or clearing through the Bureau, fin- gerprints of applicants for positions as peace officers to determine whether they had pre- vious criminal records. In addition, various branches of the armed services af the United Gtates, upon occasion, have cleared their fin- gerprints through the Bureau in this man-- ner, identifications averaging $ per cent of | all these prints handied The United States Civil Service Gommis- sion adopted this practice about four years ago. In a large number of cases it was found that persons whose offenses were detected through the fingerprints, had given untruth- ful qnswers to questions on. the application . blanks. . Results obtained in such ‘fdentification work were so favorable that on July 1, 1933, the Civil Service Fingerprint Division was con- solidated with that of the United Btates Bu- € . . Bince the major pert of the Agesprint identifications made by the Bureau are handled through the prints submitted by local law enforcement agencies, a business _ man or large employer of Jabor would have = - to secure the cooperation of his local law ~ enforcement agencies in submitting any fin- gerprints to the Bureau. If these agencies are willing to send the fingerprints in to Washington, the Bureau of Investigation will .... . search for any existing record without charge: to the local officers. The second class of civil prints is that __ which deals with the identification of un- known deceased persons or amnesia victims. The Bureau's work in examining fingerprint cards forwarded by law enforcement officers’ in the cases of persons who have been found -- dead, either from violence or natural causes, Linited. State Jaw - repin MS. fee 1b ® Wire (PSS. Fe ee my a ee