1935 February 7

Fingerprint Everyone! FBI Begins National Program

 

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover initiated a national campaign on this day to have all Americans fingerprinted and with the prints sent to the FBI.

Many prominent Americans joined in the campaign, including John D. Rockefeller, Jr. The “first step” in the planned program was to require the fingerprinting of all public employees.

The campaign soon lost its momentum, however, and no national fingerprint registry of all Americans was ever developed.

Learn about today’s FBI fingerprint and biometrics programs:
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/fingerprints_biometrics

Learn about the weak “science” underlying fingerprints: David Harris, Failed Evidence: Why Law Enforcement Resists Science (2012)

Read about “The Myth of Fingerprints” at The Smithsonian

Learn more: Athan Theoharis, The FBI & American Democracy: A Brief Critical History (2004)

|Share

Topics: FBI, Hoover, J. Edgar / Index: , / No Comments

February 7

Find a Day

Go
Abortion Rights ACLU african-americans Alice Paul anti-communism Anti-Communist Hysteria Birth Control Brown v. Board of Education Censorship CIA Civil Rights Civil Rights Act of 1964 Cold War Espionage Act FBI First Amendment Fourteenth Amendment freedom of speech Free Speech Gay Rights Hate Speech homosexuality Hoover, J. Edgar HUAC Japanese American Internment King, Dr. Martin Luther Ku Klux Klan Labor Unions Lesbian and Gay Rights Loyalty Oaths McCarthy, Sen. Joe New York Times Obscenity Police Misconduct Same-Sex Marriage Separation of Church and State Sex Discrimination Smith Act Spying Spying on Americans Vietnam War Voting Rights Voting Rights Act of 1965 War on Terror Watergate White House Women's Rights Women's Suffrage World War I World War II Relocation Camps

Topics

Tell Us What You Think

We want to hear your comments, criticisms and suggestions!
Contact Us