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It was in 1971 that Britain
saw the introduction of what became the successor to the Identikit system - the
Penry Facial Identification Technique, called 'Photo-FIT'. Superficially, the
system closely resembled Identikits with its image photography rather than hand
drawn. However, in an article published simultaneously in The Criminologist and
Forensic Photography in 1974, Jacques Penry opens :
..."I should like to make
it clear that Photo-FIT is a completely original conception, and not a
development of any other facial identification system,. It was in 1938, while
selecting faces to be photographed to illustrate my first book Character From
the Face that the idea of face building came to me by accident."...
In 1968 Penry, a specialist in physique/personality links, approached the Home
Office Police Research and Development Branch and was put under contract to
produce a 'kit'. By 1969 Penry had completed the prototype 'Front-view Basic
Caucasian Kit' which was capable of composing five billion faces. 1970 saw the
production of the Afro-Asian Supplement (500 million possibilities of 'Coloured'
faces). Supplement followed supplement
(including North American Indian supplement produced in collaboration with the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police). However it was not until 1974 that a Female
Supplement was introduced.
The scope of the full kit can be judged from the Current Caucasian Basic Kit,
which alone contains:
204 Foreheads and hairstyles
96 Pairs of Eyes
89 Noses
101 Mouths
74 Chin and Cheek sections
Plus various accessories - headwear, moustaches, beards, spectacles, age lines,
ears.
It is possible to compose about 15 billion faces with this kit. |
