Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1903-03-19
HOW POLICE REMEMBER Face
Through Long Practice They Acquire
an Intuitive knowledge OF
Criminal PhysiORnOmles.

How does a policeman remember
faces?" repeated Chicago police in
spector, when the question was asked
by a Tribune man. 20, there are no
rules for remembering faces that
know Of It's part Of policemans
business to remember faces, and he
finally gets to doing it intuitively-
that is, without any special effort.
When he sees a new crook shown up
at central his eye takes In all the
pecultlritieS of the man as well as the
color of his eyes and hair and the
gener al outline of his features. When
he sees that man again he will know
him. A police officer has an excep-
tional opportunity for studying
crooks, and unless he is unusually
dumb he will in a few years time be
able to recognize any one OF several
hundred crooks at sight. He first sees
the criminal, perhaps, when he is
brought into the station. Then the
next morning at the trial, while an
officer is waiting for the case to be
called in which he made the arrest, he
will see couple Of dozen crooks IN
the witness box and have chance to
study them carefully. He may see
every one of these men several times
after this under similar circum-
stances, and finally he knows these
men so we'll that he could spot them
in black alley.
"There is what we call show up
every night at central police station.
All of the suspects and pickupS made
during the day at all the police sta
tons in the city are sent down to cen
trail station. A detail of detectives
and plain clothes policemen from
every station in the city go down to
central every night and the men un-
der arrest are brought out and stood
in front Of the policemen for identi-
fcation. When any Of the prisoners
is identified his history is given to the
other policemen, and whether there
is sufficient evidence to hold the prls-
oner longer under arrest or not, the
policemen there have all become &C
quainted with him and now know him
for a criminal, so that the next time
he is wanted he is quite liable to be
arrested the moment he shows his
head.
81 don't believe that any police Off
Ger has any system of memorizing
faces. 1t would be of no use to devote
all of ones attention to the study of
q single feature. A criminal may dye
his hair and beard or shave off his
beard, or, if he was smooth shaver at
first, grow q beard when the police
got on his trail. He may receive a
scar that will change the general out
line of his face, or sickness may give
him an entirely different appearance.
One must take everything into ac-
count. Many men have some trick Of
manner or speech that will betray
them when they are off their guard,
or they may have some chronic nery-
business that can never be entirely
concealed An old-time criminal on
the West side used to shutter in a man
ner peculiar to himself. Another man
l know of has jerking of the muscles
on one side of his face every once in
awhile. Others twitch their eyes or
have a peculiar way of Struggling
their shoulders. Many criminals have
scars or are manned in some way or
other. Criminals often have pecul-
lar way of walking or standing, and
these must be studied.
The fact is, however, after all, that
the reason that policemen are able
to recognize crooks wanted for some
big crime is because they knew these
men long before they had committed
the crime. Crooks, like everybody
else, progress in their work. They do
not start in as train robbers or bank
burglars. Years before they startle
the community by some gigantic crime
of this nature they have been arrest
ed for some minor offense, and while
in jail undergoing trial have become
familiar to dozens of policemen. The
policemen have followed this mans
career because their business has
taught them that the day would come
when he would be badly wanted. It's
a policeman's theory that once a
criminal always a criminal and as he
takes little stock in the stories OF
criminals reforming, he never allows
himself to forget one whom he has
come to regard as a citizen of the un-
der world"