1) Alphonse Bertillon was a French police officer and biometrics researcher born in 1853 who developed the mug shot identification system. 2) As an assistant clerk in the Paris police department in 1879, he realized their criminal records filing system was disorganized and arrestee descriptions were too vague. 3) He proposed classifying criminal records by body measurements like head circumference and height instead of names, which led to his discovery of using mug shots - front and side photographs of arrested individuals - for police identification.

1. Alphonse
Bertillon
By Afrah

2. Introduction
Alphonse Bertillon was born on April 24,
1853, and died in February 13, 1914. He was
born in Paris, France and died in
Switzerland. Alphonse Bertillon worked a lot
in the area of biometrics. He has an older
sister Jaques, and discovered the mug shot.

3. Occupations
Alphonse Bertillon was a French police
officer and a biometrist researcher. He used
the anthropological technique of
anthropometry to create the identification
system(mug shot) based on physical
measurements, which helped him find the
cases too many criminal investigations.

4. Discovery
In1879, Alphonse’s father arranged a job for
him as an assistant clerk in the criminal records
office of the Paris Police Department. As
assistant clerk in the criminal records office, he
would have to transfer criminal background
data from sources to other files or such.

5. Discovery
The department’s collection of criminal
records had exceeded to five million files.
Bertillon realized that because there was no
organized filing system, it was impossible to
re-track any specific criminals. He noticed
that arrestee physical descriptions were too
general.

6. Discovery
Alphonse thought that it would be better to
classify and file criminal data according
their body measurements instead of their
names, which were different every time
they were arrested. In October, 1879,
Bertillon submitted a report to the chief of
police which included his method of filing
criminal backgrounds by getting most of
the criminal body measurements like head
circumference and height. This is how
Alphonse discovered the mug shot.

7. Mug shot
A mug shot is a slang term for police
photographs. It is a picture that is taken
after a person is arrested. The purpose of
taking a mug shot is for a police
identification record book, to have a
photograph of the arrested person to help
victims to identify culprits in lots of criminal
cases.

8. This is an example of a mug
shot of a criminal.
This is the mug shot of an American
gangster, Al Capone.

9. Before Alphonse’s Discovery
Before Alphonse Bertillon’s discovery, it took
longer for police to crack criminal cases as
the victim could not describe the culprit that
well to actually find the culprit. Now days, a
criminal can usually be identified by a single
photo.

10. Glossary



Biometrist researcher – a biometrist researcher
studies biometrics. Biometrics is the study of
analyzing the human body characteristics,
such as DNA and fingerprints.
Anthropological – anthropological means
relating to the study of human measurements.
Anthropology - anthropology means the
study of human measurements.

11. Bibliography
 Wikipedia
 Jim
Fisher The Official Web Site
 Search Security
 Yahoo! Answers
 Kids Britannica

12. THANKS FOR WATCHING!!