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POLICING, ‘SCIENCE’, AND THE CURIOUS CASE OF PHOTO-FIT

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2020

PAUL LAWRENCE Open the ORCID record for PAUL LAWRENCE [Opens in a new window]
PAUL LAWRENCE*
Affiliation:
The Open University
*
History Department, The Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA[email protected]
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Abstract

This article analyses the curious development and subsequent refinement of the Photo-FIT system for the identification of criminal suspects, used by police forces around the world from the 1970s. Situating Photo-FIT in a succession of other technologies of identification, it demonstrates that, far from representing the onward march of science and technology (and the way in which both were harnessed to the power of the state in the twentieth century), Photo-FIT was the brainchild of an idiosyncratic entrepreneur wedded to increasingly outmoded notions of physiognomy. Its adoption by the Home Office was primarily determined by the particular context of the later 1960s, and its continued use owed more to vested interest and energetic promotion than to scientific underpinnings or proven efficacy. It did, however, in the longer term, provide the impetus for the development of a new sub-field of psychology and pave the way for the development of increasingly sophisticated facial identification technologies still used today. Overall, the article demonstrates the long persistence of physiognomic thinking in twentieth-century Britain, the way in which new technology is socially constructed, and the persuasive power of ‘pseudo-science’.

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Article
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The Historical Journal , Volume 63 , Issue 4 , September 2020 , pp. 1007 - 1031
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2020

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Footnotes

The author wishes to thank Professor Graham Davies for his helpful insights in conversation and for allowing the author sight of an unpublished manuscript in his possession written by Jacques Penry. He also thanks the two anonymous peer reviewers for their detailed and constructive advice.

References

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2 The first Photo-FIT image used by Scotland Yard, shown on the Police 5 television programme on 22 Nov. 1970, resulted in the arrest (in Nottingham) of John Bennett for a murder involving a firearm in London (Daily Telegraph, 23 Nov. 1970, p. 3). On successor systems to Photo-FIT, see, inter alia, Davies, G. M. and Valentine, T., ‘Facial composites: forensic utility and psychological research’, in Lindsay, R. C. L., Ross, D. F., Read, J. D., and Toglia, M. P., eds., Handbook of eyewitness psychology, volume 2: memory for people (Mahwah, NJ, 2007), pp. 59–83Google Scholar. On the ways in which Photo-FIT shaped the field of facial recognition within psychology, see Davies, G. M. and Young, A. W., ‘Research on face recognition: the Aberdeen influence’, British Journal of Psychology, 1 (2017), pp. 1–19Google Scholar.

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15 ‘The railway tragedy’, Daily Telegraph, 1 July 1881, p. 3. For further images of LeFroy Mapleton and information about the trial, see Illustrated Police News, 16 July 1881. For the coroner's account of the case, see Winslow, L. Forbes, Recollections of forty years (London, 1910)Google Scholar.

16 It is not clear which newspaper image the captain saw, but see, for example, Illustrated Police News, 23 July 1910. The police had also issued a range of images of Crippen on public wanted posters. On Crippen's flight and capture, see Wenzlhuemer, R., ‘The ship, the media, and the world: conceptualizing connections in global history’, Journal of Global History, 11 (2016), pp. 163–86CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 McDonald, H. C. and Rogers, H. W., The classification of police photographs (Los Angeles, CA, 1941)Google Scholar. This was not the first attempt systematically to categorize faces: see, for example, Anderson, C. W. B., The facial index system (Rangoon, 1911)Google Scholar.

18 ‘The face in the magic box’, Daily Mail, 8 Mar. 1961, p. 9. For images of the Identi-Kit system, see Identikit, c. 1964, TNA, MEPO 13/315.

19 Daily Mirror, 16 May 1961, p. 15; Times, 11 May 2007, p. 76.

20 ‘Use of Identikits: a note on facial identification techniques’, Aug. 1969, Home Office Police Research and Development Branch, research note 10/69, TNA, HO 377/73.

21 ‘IdentiKit system of identifying persons wanted for crime: demonstration and use’, 1959–64, TNA, MEPO 2/9907.

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23 Taylor, ‘Science and the British police’.

24 On the work of the PSDB, see also Blain, ‘Home Office’, pp. 560–2.

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28 These included Anglia TV, Southern TV, ITV, and the BBC, as well as United Newspapers, Reuters, and a range of other national and local newspapers.

29 ‘Minister announces new criminal identification system’, 22 Apr. 1970, WYAS, John Waddington papers, box 69.

30 See, for example, ‘Picture brings leads to killer’, Daily Mail, 13 Apr. 1971, p. 5.

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32 ‘Obituary. Mr Jacques Penry, inventor of the Photofit system’, Times, 11 Nov. 1987, p. 18.

33 L. V. Dodds, ‘Your nose tells all about you’, Daily Express, 13 Dec. 1937, p. 5.

34 See, inter alia, ‘The noses are rolling in’, Daily Express, 20 Dec. 1937, p. 11; ‘First of the readers’ noses’, Daily Express, 29 Dec. 1937, p. 11; ‘Three noses tell different stories’, Daily Express, 6 Jan. 1938, p. 13; ‘Is your nose here?’, Daily Express, 18 Feb. 1938, p. 14.

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37 Ibid., pp. 9, 14.

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42 ‘He knows your children's secrets’, Daily Mail, 9 Mar. 1939, p. 1.

43 See, for example, ‘The future is in his face’, Daily Mirror, 22 Nov. 1938, p. 15; ‘Mr Penry was right about him’, Daily Mirror, 1 Dec. 1938, p. 15; ‘Does your daughter look at all like this?’, Daily Mirror, 8 Dec. 1938, p. 15; ‘This sort of girl will always have a full stocking’, Daily Mirror, 22 Dec. 1938, p. 11; ‘This boy is a good mixer’, Daily Mirror, 5 Jan. 1939, p. 17; ‘Will she be like Mummy?’, Daily Mirror, 14 Mar. 1940, p. 17.

44 ‘Jacques Penry’, British Pathé, 21 Sept. 1939, film ID 1278.27, media URN 42726.

45 Ibid., at 00:52.

46 For example, ‘This girl should be a woman territorial!’, Daily Mirror, 22 Oct. 1938, p. 15; ‘This girl wants to help Britain!’, Daily Mirror, 27 Oct. 1938, p. 14; ‘These are the best jobs for this man’, Daily Mirror, 5 Nov. 1938, p. 15; ‘A face you couldn't swindle’, Daily Mirror, 8 Dec. 1938, p. 19.

47 ‘Why Gamelin will triumph’, Daily Mirror, 16 Oct. 1939, p. 10.

48 See, for example, ‘The uncommon task’, Guardian, 1 Oct. 1945, p. 3; ‘Hens and eggs in Nigeria’, Guardian, 25 Oct. 1946, p. 3.

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61 This quotation is contained within an unpublished set of notes written by Penry entitled ‘The faces man’ (n.d.). The author is grateful to Professor Graham Davies, who shared a copy of this document, which he obtained from Penry's widow after his death.

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84 ‘Sales, costs and royalties’, WYAS, John Waddington papers, box 69.

85 Ibid.; see range of promotional leaflets dated 1973 and 1974.

86 The Times, 12 Oct. 1970, p. 19. The link with Colt is significant as Colt's direct competitor, Smith and Wesson, was the producer and distributor of Identi-Kit.

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89 Kitson, Darnbrough, and Sheilds, ‘Let's face it’, p. 11.

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