Anthropometry – First Scientific System used to Identify Criminals (7 pictures)

Alphonse Bertillon (1853–1914) was a French police officer and biometrics researcher who applied anthropometry to law enforcement. Anthropometry was the first scientific system used by police to identify criminals. Before that time, criminals could only be identified by name or photograph. The method was eventually supplanted by fingerprinting, but “his other contributions like the mug shot and the systematization of crime-scene photography remain in place to this day. [via]