Fingerprinting history in Canada began with Constable Edward Foster, an officer with the Dominion Police Force in 1904. His work began the National Fingerprint Bureau.
Find the Fingerprint, Find Your Man
Recently, I was watching CSI, one of my favourite television shows. Now that they are in reruns, I’ve pretty well seen them all until the new season begins in the fall.
Watching them over and over leads to different views of the episodes – many use fingerprint evidence. Other crime shows do too, so I had to ask the question: When did fingerprinting become a standard in Canada?
The year was 1904. Edward Foster was a Constable with the Dominion Police Force, forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He was 41 years old. Sent with a security delegation to the St. Louis World Exposition to guard the Canadian government’s exhibit of gold, Constable Foster used his off-time to attend meetings and conventions. He took in a seminar by Sergeant Ferrier of the Scotland Yard Exhibit, whose topic was fingerprinting. Constable Foster was intrigued and received permission, according to the RCMP website, to stay on St. Louis and study the new identification method. He learned and he shared his new skills; he trained other officers who then spread out across the country to train detachment officers.
By 1911, now-Inspector Foster was given office space and staff in Ottawa’s Langevin Block of the Parliament Buildings. The National Fingerprint Bureau operated a classification system for fingerprint evidence taken from by police officers from across the country. In the same year, Inspector Foster made his first appearance as an expert witness at the Thomas Jennings murder trial in Chicago, Illinois. The Illinois Supreme Court ruled that fingerprints were admissible as evidence. Fingerprints became known as reliable method of identifying individuals.
Analyzing the ridges, whorls, arches and loops in the early years was time-consuming work, done manually. Today’s methods involve computer analysis and comparison, saving time and money, and enabling quicker action to capture the suspects. Fingerprints are reliable enough that the procedure is now used for biometric identification in business and security. Want a job with the Government of Canada? Prepare to have your fingerprints taken and stored.
Unfortunately, fingerprint evidence has come under scrutiny of late. Several innocent people were imprisoned on fingerprint evidence that turned out to be wrong. In one particular case, a British policewoman, Shirley McKie, had never been at the house in which a crime had occurred, yet a left-thumb print apparently matching hers was found at the scene. Fingerprint and forensic expert Allan Bayle found the print analysis was wrong, comparing the thumb print to that of right-hand finger, and was not hers.
Aside from the few international errors, fingerprinting is known as a historically reliable method of identification that is used Canada-wide, thanks to the efforts of Inspector Foster and officers of Canada’s police forces.
McKie Case of Wrong Fingerprint
Read more on the fascinating history of fingerprinting
