Henry Classification System
The Henry Classification System is a method by which records of fingerprints are indexed by physiological characteristics, allowing for one-to-many searching. In 1859, a British Chief Magistrate in colonized India discovered that fingerprints remain stable over time and are unique to individuals. By 1877 he had instituted the first of fingerprints and handprints as a means of identification. Without a means of filing and searching, the usefulness of this one-to-one matching system was confined to legal documents and authentication in which one print is compared against another.
In 1892, the anthropologist who coined the word “eugenics,” Francis Galton, published a highly influential book called Finger Prints in which he identifies three main fingerprint patterns — loops, whorls, and arches. The British Indian police force had just adopted Bertillon’s method of anthropometry, and Inspector General Sir Edward Harry saw resonance between their practice of fingerprinting and the taxonomizing of biological features. Following an extended correspondence with the famed eugenicist, Sir Henry ordered the systematic collection of prisoners’ fingerprints in addition to their anthropometric measurements (Beaven, 2001). The distinction Galton illustrated between gross physiological characteristics and granual characteristics allowed for the development, by Sir Edward’s Indian underlings, of an organizational technology that greatly reduces the effort of searching large numbers of fingerprint records (Sodhi & Kaur, 2005).
The Henry Classification phased out Bertillonage as the standard method of criminal identification. Not only was it more accurate, but it was less time consuming, and the procedure didn’t require specialist training to operate, like anthropometry. Now that the police forces could process more data, they were inclined to collect more data. Individuals could be booked and entered into the system very easily, allowing the government to keep tabs on low-level subversive threats, such as government protesters, terrorist groups, and the disenfranchised. This leads to improvements in criminal statistics, pattern recognition, and network analysis. Most importantly, fingerprinting or "chanced impressions" uses bureaucratic record-keeping to source traces of an individual back to their identity. This mechanism is the foundation of mass surveillance.
