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3.4: Sergeant John Kenneth Ferrier, Scotland Yard

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    52968
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    Black and white portrait of a man wearing a wide-brimmed hat, suit, and tie, with a prominent mustache.
    Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\):Sergeant John Kenneth Ferrier - Photograph Courtesy of the NY State Division of Criminal Justice

    As it happened, in 1904 Sergeant John Kenneth Ferrier of the London Metropolitan Police Department was assigned to guard the Crown Jewels Exhibition at the World’s Fair in Saint Louis. Sergeant Ferrier had worked with Sir Edward Henry to implement the Henry Classification System for fingerprint card retrieval in London. While awaiting the arrival of the jewels, Sergeant Ferrier, who was a skilled fingerprint technician, provided instruction to police agencies in the United States. He set up a booth at the World’s Fair and it is said that his eagerness and enthusiasm for the use of fingerprints as a means of identification convinced anyone who spent time talking to him. It should also be noted that Sergeant Ferrier recorded the first known fingerprint card at the Saint Louis Police Department when he assisted with the arrest of a British expatriate, Percy Ogilvie, who was caught running a fraud scheme with an advertisement that promised well-paying security guard positions to protect the crown jewels at the exhibition in exchange for a $10.00 application fee. Percy Ogilvie interviewed over 400 people from whom the application fee was collected. It was determined that Percy had no authority to advertise the jobs, nor were any of those who were interviewed given employment. While Sergeant Ferrier recorded his fingerprints, Percy confessed to the crime.


    This page titled 3.4: Sergeant John Kenneth Ferrier, Scotland Yard is shared under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by David Doglietto.

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