History Of Police Mug Shots

Mugshots have been used throughout history and have photographed criminals, public and even celebrities as well as famous figures throughout. Many mugshots have been released into the public domain so the public can keep a look out for any strange activity and to help them find any criminals that may go missing from prisons and alike.



Mugshots used to be used for Wild west wanted posters, these posters would show the accused, their name, crime, date of the crime committed,  and usually a reward for either the accused arrested a live or brought in dead. Some mugshots of famous celebrities have been put into newspapers through the press to show the public that it's not just everyday people that commit crimes. Some of the most famous mugshots are often History Figures, Celebrities and Murderers.

The mugshot invented by Allan Pinkerton has been used since the early 19th Century. Mugshots are always a side profile and a head on profile of the accused, when these images are shown in courts police must make sure there is nothing that makes one criminal stand out from another by taking all mugshots the same.

Police Mug Shot

A Mugshot or Booking Shot as there sometimes referred too are used by the police as a photographic portrait taken after someone is arrested by the police. The purpose of a Mugshot is to allow the authorities to have a photographic record of the person arrested for future references. It also enables investigators and victims to identify the arrested criminal. Most mug shots are two-part, with one side-view photo, and one front-view.

   

The Mugshot was invented by Allan Pinkerton a famous US detective,  he first used these photographs to put them on wild west wanted posters which would be distributed and put around places for the public to see and help find the criminal who was on the run. 

By 1870 he had the largest collection of Mugshots in the whole of the United States. Before computer technology was invented the accused had to hold a sign which had their details written on such as: name, date and other relevant information. All Mugshots taken in the United States can be accessed by anyone under the freedom of information act. 

Usual Suspects - Police Identity Parade

The Usual Suspects is a 1995 American neo-noir film written by  Christopher McQuarrie and directed by Bryan Singer. The film has a very iconic photograph on the front cover of the dvd/VHS, the photograph is taken from a clip in the film of a police identity parade. One of the best mystery films in America and has won several awards, the film had a lot of scenes in which police were involved as well as the identity parade scene in which the actors are all against a blank background marked with heights. The audience can see through the two way mirror the police are looking through. 

Princess Diana Line Up.

The image from Usual Suspects. The image has become iconic, alot of images like this have being used in cinema

especially to show police scenes.

 

Popular culture has used police identity parades to make fun of certain people or subjects. I found a few and have decided to include them as i feel these images are all part of how police identity parades can be made and even though some of them are just mean for fun a lot of them are drawn or shot like real identity parades would be.  

  

Usual Suspects Lineup

The usual suspects film has a police line up in which i found it very useful to see how the line up was done and how the parade was put together. There are defiantly no shadows on the subjects in the video and all suspects faces are clearly visible and crisp. I like the fact they used all different height actors in the piece and they all look slightly different even though in an identity parade they're meant to use similar looking people.

The piece of video footage also shows the police looking through a two way mirror which is how they would of used to of done police identity parades before changing it all to do it digitally. Making it digital meant it was more widely available for other police forces across the country and that they could share images and information.

Controlled by the environment mindmap

Viper System - Video Identification Parade Electrionic Recording

The Viper System was invented by the police and is a (Video identification parade electronic recording) it has being used for the past 30 years. The West Yorkshire police own and manage the Viper system which all UK police use to produce video identification (ID parades). Over thirty police forces in the UK rely on the Viper system to produce ID parades for them. This system has become very successful and has even routinely being presented in courts for many years. 

Viper System Image

A victim may be asked to view a short DVD of the Identity parade in which the 3 minute clip contains videos of each head shot of whom the accused could turn out to be. Each person shown on the video will be in front of a blank either gray or white background and will turn their head either left or right but all will be the same so as not to make anyone stand out for any peculiar reason. 

Another example of what Viper looks like.

Occasionally teams will travel around the UK taking with them a mobile unit in which they take mobile recordings of volunteers performing a simple head turn. A one-off cash payment is received by every volunteer upon successful completion of the recording. The video recordings are then stored on the database along with any other vital information in which the police may need in case in the future a person decides to commit any criminal activity.

Some of the benefits to using Viper are:

• Applies to national standards for an ID parade.
• Extensive database of volunteers/actors/public with a range of appearance.
• Simple and fast process.
• Accused does not come into contact with the witness.
• Large database of appearances for ID parades.

50,000 ID parades are produced each year for 32 police forces in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.  Viper means there are increased chances for the police forces to conduct a video ID parade. The Viper system ensures that there are enough volunteers to appear alongside a suspect and that material being used complies with all national standards.

Police Identity Parade

For my image of the police identity parade i will get a minimum of four subjects, i would ideally like to use a white background as most are taken against a blank background to make the subjects pop and make a lot easier and clearer to see in the photograph. Police identity parades are often used to take photographs of similar looking people who have committed a crime and whom the victim of said crimes usually identify to the police through a two way mirror in another room the identity parade criminals or potential criminals are made to stand in front of a wall which has heights marked down the left and right hand sides of the wall.

 

Sometimes criminals will be asked to stand in height order but that isn't often the case as generally all criminals are different heights and so to tell what particular height they are they all stand against the board. The victim is behind the two way mirror in another room, able to see the criminals and will often point out who committed the crime to the police, so they aren't seen by the criminals.

Sometimes identity parades will just have who the police know is the suspect but need to make sure by getting the victim to identify them. So they will hire actors or get volunteers of a similar build, height and a like to stand in the parade with the suspect. A photograph of a police identity parade is called a "Photo Lineup" 

 

Often though in some cases the identity parade has photographs taken of it so if the victim is too upset to see the criminals at such close quarters they can identify the said criminal where ever the police see fit. These parades also can be saved onto a computer or in a file for police to later look back on and look through if they didn't catch the criminal in the first place. If the victim or witness successfully identifies the suspect from among the fillers (Actors or volunteers), the identification is considered valid