The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-06-15

The International Association of Chiefs of Police is arranging to hold Its sixteenth annual convention in Buffalo today. It had been intended to hold the convention In Los Angeles, but ow- ing to the recent police scandal there, the cnange to Buffaio was made. The Association meets as sort of clearing house for ideas In the prevention of crime and aims to get fresh hold on that growing band of men and women who live by their wits, setting their faces against the law. In the modern days of quick transportation that po- lice department must fall which does not cooperate with It's neighbors. for the criminal may be a thousand miles away from the scene of his crime with in twenty-four hours. It was to bring about that co-operation and to trans form the police forces of the world aiding the other in It's work. each part looking for the lawbreakers of all, that the International Association of Police Chiefs was formed.
 Along with it was formed the Inter- national Bureau of Identification, now located in Washington. This Bureau has the records of nearly 50,000 crirn- inals. Of course some of them have died, and others have reformed. but 1t
 
 brace about every notorious individual in the United States and Canada. and most of the great international crirn- inals as we'll So far as the past is concerned, it's records are very full. But 1t is not the old offenders that give the police department most trouble. They are aware that the photographs of these, their Bertiiion measurements. and their finger prints, perhaps. are accessible to the police everywhere. But not so with the new crop of crirn- inals, which amounts to hundreds every year. It is In an effort to acquaint the police of North America with them that most of the energy of the Bureau is exercised.
 Every now and then Major Richard Sylvester, Superintendent of the Wash ington police force. and President of the International Association, whose work at inauguration time always commands national commendation, is sues a little book that the public at large never sees. It goes to police headquarters in the various cities of the country. and contains the pictures and descriptions of about 200 recruits to the ranks. of notorious and danger ous criminals. This album is carefully studied wherever T goes, as in 1t are the names of those whom 1t will De profitable for the whole police world to watch during many coming years.
 There Is no other point in human existence where the battle of wit Is so sharp as where meet the criminal and the guardians of the law. For every repressive, measure that society is able to adopt, the forger. the bank robber. and the porch climber. mas a Roland for its Oliver. When effectively shut of in one direction they have been able to break through the precautions against them in another, so that today 1t is as much of a nip-and-tuck race between the thief and those who would suppress him as ever it was.
 It has been estimated by criminal expert who had his statistics printed by Congressional authority that crime costs the people of the United States { s600, ,000, ,000 year. The way he are rives at thls conclusion is interesting. He starts out by estimating that the. cities and counties of the country spend $150. .o0o.00e n year in the pre- State and National governments spend $50, 100000 more He reckons that there are 100000 criminals in the Unit ed States, and that their stealings when at liberty, and loss of time when in prison. have an aggregate value of $400. .00o.0 .00o. He places about ons- half of all the criminals on the list of habituais.
 His estimate of the number of crim. inals Is probably under the mark. Acs cording to census returns there are So,000 prisoners in the penal institutions of the country, and that takes no account of those In the and other corrective in. stitutions. The number of crimes which go unpunished is almost as great as the number for which justice is meted out, so that if the per capita figures Of the expert be correct, the whole cost of crime in the United States is com siderabiy above the Agure given above. Add to this the propoTtionate cost in Canada and Mexico, abd the total for North America would<not be far 'frorp a billion dollars a year.
 There are now about 100 cities of the United States and Canada which use the Bertillon method of criminal iden- tification. This constitutes photo- graphs in three positions, measure ments of a number of unchanging characteristics of the body, notation of all scars, deformities, and other pecu- liarities. There are seventy police orr. ganizations belonging to the Interna- tional Association of Police Chiefs. and they all send these identifications to the Identification Bureau at Washing ton. More than 4,000 photographs are received there each year .and over 400 identifications of criminals result from its activities.
 The Bertillon method Is the child ot the brain of French ethnologist now attached to the Paris police service. It Is the most widely used of all meth- ods of Identification. But it's value ex- tends only from the twentieth year up- ward. To remedy this defect, and to make assurance more certain in identi- fication work, the finger print method has been growing in favor Dip the finger or thumb in ordinary printers ink and then press it on white paper. and you have an impression that can-' not be duplicated in all the world. It Is an impression that would be made at any period from the cradle tN the grave. Some take the thumb only Others. take the thumb and the four fingers of the left hand. because 1t is least used and least liable to injury. Some have the Hat impression, simply pressing the thumb fiat. Others make the person to be Identified place his thumb in a position so that the nall is vertical. and then roll the member around on the paper until 1t is vertical on the other side.
 The army, the navy, and the marine corps have all adopted the finger print method of Identification. When 1t prints the print of the suspect is oom- pared with that on file. Under a micro- scope it is easy to count every little line. and to note its direction and character with infinite precision. But modern ingenuity cannot lay claim to credit for evolving this exact method of Identification. Like such a surpris. ing lot of other things which men now regard as wonderfully ingenious. hn-
 n