Alphonse Bertillon, French Biometrician

Alphonse Bertillon's anthropometric measuring system used to record the dimensions of a subject's ears. Alphonse Bertillon (1853-1914) was a French police officer and biometrics researcher who created anthropometry, an identification system based on physical measurements. Anthropometry was the first scientific system used by police to identify criminals. Before that time, criminals could only be identified based on unreliable eyewitness accounts. 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

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1853 Alphonse Anthropometry Bertillon Bertillonage Biometrician Biometrics Enforcement Identification Measuring Method Methodology

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