organizations, covering the whole field of criminal activity. To assist in the detection of crime, these records are made available to investigating officers throughout 24 hours of every day. In addition, the Criminal Records Office arrange for the publication and dissemination of information on missing persons, stolen identifiable property, and lost and found property.
The main index of names and addresses now totals nearly 288,000 cards. During the year 158,000 record checks were made by the staff. All Chinese names are indexed using the Chinese Commercial Code numbers filed in numerical order. C.C.C. numbers or the actual Chinese characters must therefore be supplied with any request for a record check.
The photographic index of convicted criminals, filed in offence and age groups, was used on 1,088 occasions resulting in 78 identifications being made.
(b) Fingerprint Records
During the year 54,721 fingerprint forms were received in the Section for examination, an increase of 1,461 compared with the previous year. Following examination of the prints, 24,301 persons were identified in the Criminal Records Office: in addition, the identity of 89 deceased persons became known. The total number of fingerprints filed in the main collection is now 264,446. The single fingerprint collection was increased by 370 prints, bringing the total to 58,630 representing 5,863 persons who have been convicted of robbery, breaking in, and similar offences.
(c) Photographic Section
Personnel from this section, including divisional photog- raphers took 79,429 photographs and produced 248,888 prints. They attended courts on 362 occasions to give evidence. In addition 156,400 documents were microfilmed on behalf of other government departments in order to reduce their storage requirements.
(d) Scene of Crime
Fingerprint officers from this section attended 2,741 serious cases during the year which yielded 579 individual prints from which 28 persons were identified.
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