Police-1963-1964 — Page 41

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146. During the year a total of 55,757 fingerprint forms were received at the bureau for examination, representing an increase of 5,725 over the previous year-of these 18,078 were for security vetting checks. The single fingerprint collection was increased by some 6,000 prints to bring the total collection to some 50,000. The acquisition of a Leitz Parablete- scope makes possible a much speedier and more efficient comparison of single fingerprints.

147. The Photographic Section, including divisional photographers, attended 3,496 scenes of crime and 1,061 traffic accidents. 37,814 photo- graphs were taken and 108,941 documents were microfilmed, both for the police and other departments. Microfilming had to be curtailed slightly during the year because of the water shortage and consequent developing difficulties.

148. New equipment, including an 8 mm. ciné projector and a wide angle camera, was obtained during the year.

149. The Questioned Documents Section examined 1,921 manuscripts and 250 typewritten documents compared with 855 and 270 in the previous year. From these there were positive identifications in 58 cases.

Criminal Records Office

150. This office consists of several interdependent sections respon- sible for the collation of information in connexion with criminals and their activities. Comprehensive indices are maintained of wanted and missing persons, cars and other property.

151. The office contains some 25,000 individual dossiers and particulars of over 330,000 persons who have come to police notice.

152. The modus operandi index, by which means a systematic check is maintained on the patterns of criminal behaviour and habitual methods of perpetrating crimes produced only 32 positive results compared with 73 in the previous year. On the other hand the visual index, which contains photographs of known criminals, was used successfully on 445 occasions where offenders were positively identified.

153. Steady progress has been made with the conversion of records maintained on index-cards and other documents to punched-cards. Full use has been made of the cards so far punched in machine sorting and checking. Microfilming of older records has made additional document storage space available.

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