◆ SpookStack

ee ee Se aA le lata, eR AOR: Ri Cee Aen © rapa Minato eI: ce ttamnitaraae seins - 6- 1924, “to operate aS a national clearing house of identification datas’ At the date of its inception, it began with epproxinetely 800, ,000, 2 fingerprint records which “had conprised the collections of the ‘bureau 7 maintained at the United States Penitentiary, Leavenvorth, Kansas, . oe and of the National Bureau of Criminal Identification, Washington, D. C., which had been operated by the International Association of Chiefs of Police. | Since its establishment in 1924, the Identification Unit of the Division of Investigation hes had a phenomenal growth. Dur- ing the fiscal year of 1934 alone, it received 558,241 criminal fin-- eerprint cards in addition to applicant and civil records. On December 1, 1954, there were 4,641,737 fingerprint ree- ords on file, representing the largest and most complete collection of criminal fingerprint records of current value existing anywhere . in the world. This Unit now receives criminal identification data from 7,135 contributors in the United States and foreign countries, . ‘and receives more then 2 2,500 fingerprint cards each a replying . to each of these cards withi n 36 hours. The sub jects of « over ah of all the prints received are . ae identified as heving prior criminal records. By means of posting notices of wanted persons in this Unit, the Division at present identifies an averace of 375 fugitives each month, immediately