FINGER-PRINTS ARE STILL RELIABLE

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 16, 9 April 1927, Page 10

FINGER-PRINTS ARE STILL RELIABLE

POLICE CHIEF’S OPINION (From Our Resident Correspondent.') WELLINGTON, Friday. In spite of the cable from Rome indicating the unreliability of fingerprint evidence in the light of a recent Italian case, the Police Commissioner, Mr. W. B. Mcllveney refuses at this stage to have his belief in the infallibility of the system shaken. When questioned to-night, he said that the police authorities in New Zealand would get into touch with those in Rome to secure a verification or otherwise of the reports, and Scotland Yard would doubtless be one of the first to make exhaustive inquiries. So many previous reports that had declared the unreliability of the system had utimately been found to be fakeS that he would require official proof in this case, as it might also prove to be a fake. Mr. Mcllveney’s .~ith in fingerprints as a detection of crime in New Zealand is founded on the fact that last year 40 criminals were arrested in Wellington as a result of fingerprint investigation, and 37 of them pleaded guilty. The Commissioner suggests that the Rome authorities might be confusing finger-prints with the Bertillion system of measurement largely used on the Continent.