1908-2008 Fingerprint Bureau Centenary celebrations

H.M.K.G. Tikiribanda, Registrar of Fingerprints

A Budu Medura replete with a serene Buddha Statue built at the premises of the Sri Lanka Police Criminal Records Division to mark the centenary of introducing the fingerprint science to our country to establish identity of persons, will be ceremonially opened by IGP H.A.J.S.K. Wickramaratne at the auspicious time of 8.27 a.m. on Saturday 8th November 2008 amidst the chanting of Seth Pirith by the Maha Sangha.

An all religious blessing ceremony will also be held on this day followed by a Sangika dana to 25 Bhikkhus to mark the occasion. The prime objective of these ceremonies is to invoke blessings and transfer merit on all officers, past and present, of the Department of Police who pioneered and sponsored the introduction of the fingerprint science into this country including scientists and experts who were closely connected to the fingerprint science.

Punyakarma

Staffs who have retired after serving in this Institution have also been invited to participate in this Punyakarma.

Identifying people through the means of fingerprints is a definite method which can be used in respect of the entire world community. The honour of announcing this method to the whole world for the first time in 1684 A.D. goes to Dr. Nehimiya Grew (FRCS) a European national. Thereafter scientists, Marcello Malpighi, Thomes Bewick, J.E. Perkenji, Sir William Herschelle, Dr. Henry Faulds, Juan Vucetich and Sir Francis Galton announced that "Fingerprints could be definitely used for the purpose of identifying persons." Thereafter in 1892 Sir Fancis Galton divided fingerprint patterns into three parts and factually proved that prints which are not of the same finger are contradictory.

Bureau opened

Thereafter a Fingerprint Bureau was opened at the Scotland Yard in England and its commissioner Sir Edward Richard Henry divided fingerprint patterns into four sections and introduced a Mathematical Classification System for filing them in 1901. This system known as the Henry System is now used in many countries.

When considering the fingerprint science in our country, identifying persons through fingerprints was started in 1908 and cadre of staff trained for it. The pioneer in this was D.V. Altendorff-ISO, who joined the police service on 01.06.1894 as a grade iii Police Constable Clerk on an annual salary of Rs. 180 and retired as a DIG on 01.04.1931 after 36 years of service. He has followed a fingerprint course in Madras in 1900 and on his return given advice to his staff and set up a fingerprint bureau.