Fingerprints are as reliable a fac-for in crime detection as ever, according to the experts of the Shanghai Municipal Police, who look askance at a recent attempt in England of a suspect to prove that fingerprints can be "planted" to convict an innocent man.
The London papers have given wide publicity io the case of David Pearce, who was reported acquitted by a jury because he "proved" to their satisfaction that his own fingerprint found on a bottle at the scene of a theft need not have been left there by him.
Detective Sub-Insp. J. C. Dickson, im charge of the S.M.P. Fingerprint Bureau, points out that the transference of fingerprints is an old, old feat, but that it is got likely to fool an expert. The laws of most countries require that fingerprint evidence be presented in court in enlargement of at least six diameters. It is well-nigh impossible to "plant" a fingerprint successfully—the take simply would not look natural, especially about the edges.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.