Recent Book: The Scientific Way: H.I.T. — A Manual for Classification, Filing and Retrieval of Fingerprints
| Author | G. T. C. Lambourne |
| Date | 01 April 1980 |
| Published date | 01 April 1980 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X8005300221 |
| Subject Matter | Recent Book |
and central governments. The reader is
left with the belief that the Urban
Programme did some good but not
enough. That it made a contribution to
inner city problems is not in doubt and
this book makes a statement on these
problems.
The
reader
will
find
considerable food for thought, although
he will be left with many unanswered
questions
about
inner cities and their
inhabitants. M.W.
CAN WE HELP?
PAMELA
D.
MAYNALL
AND
DAVID
PATRICK
GEARY:
Community Relations
and the Administration
of
Justice. (2nd Edition).
John
Wiley &Sons. £9.00.
This is
another
example of the growing
corpus of police literature stemming
from the U.S.A. and no doubt generated
largely by the need for text books and
training manuals for the growth of
university and college trained police
officers. It represents acommendable
effort to give form to a subject that is a
long way from being universally
understood in U.K. police forces. The
authors do us a service in exposing the
difference between the cosmetics of
public relations and the dynamics of
community relations, the latter being one
essential ingredient in superior policing
systems. Many believe
that
faulty
communication between individuals and
groups and the police brings
about
problems which better technique and
training might prevent, and this is dealt
with fully and well, The authors provide
a
most
interesting
and
thought
provoking
chapter
on
citizen
participation in policing which reflects
many of the arguments currently being
advanced by groups in England at the
present time. As most ofthe background
comes from progressive areas ofthe U.S.
it is not surprising that some of them
appear unorthodox to the more
conservative.
Above all the
author
pleads, and quite
rightly, for consideration of the police
role in democratic societies. She expects
great things from the police but only if
they see themselves as the "peoples
police" and interested in preventing
crimes through participation in socially
constructive ways of dispelling the seed
beds of much crime.
Throughout its fourteen useful and
well set out chaptersthe authors provide
helpful check lists, discussion topics, and
bibliographies. It is, at least in form, a
lazy students dream.
THE
SCIENTIFIC
WAY
PATRICIA
ANNE
KOLB:
H.I. T. -amanual
for
classification. filing and retrieval
of
fingerprints. Charles C. Thomas. $13.75.
I found this adaptation of the manual
punch card system, already in successful
use with the "Ten One File" system, for
searching palm prints an interesting, but
logical progression. Iwonder why we
have had to wait nineteen years since the
introduction of the ten-one system by the
OrangeCounty Sheriffs Office for such a
book to be published.
This spiral backed book has been well
presented by the publishers with clear
text
and
photographs. As this system can
only be used for a relatively small palm
collection the
author
has obviously only
created a simple palm classification.
The basic system revolves around
palm prints being taken on pre-
punched cards. The punching on these
cards allow for ten main pattern
195
descriptors for each of the majorareas of
the palm, the hypothenar, the interdigital
area
and
the thenar area, plus a facility
for four extensions of each area. The
punched holes on these cards are
arranged in such a way as to permiteach
of the main palm areas to be searched
independently. Once the palm cards have
been notched with the pertinent datathey
are available for searching using a sorting
needle.
An interesting innovation is the use of
a"Brownie Triangle". This triangle,
which has a 30mm base with sides 33mm
long, is drawn in the centre of a "Henry"
disc and is used to count bifurcations in a
prescribed area of the thenar when no
pattern is revealed. As the
author
has
failed to give any statistical
data
based on
Police Journal April 1980
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