<P> Jan Evangelista Purkyně or Purkinje ( 1787 -- 1869 ) , a Czech physiologist and professor of anatomy at the University of Breslau , published a thesis in 1823 discussing 9 fingerprint patterns , but he did not mention any possibility of using fingerprints to identify people . In 1840 , following the murder of Lord William Russell , a provincial doctor , Robert Blake Overton , wrote to Scotland Yard suggesting checking for fingerprints but the suggestion , though followed up , did not lead to their routine use by the police for another 50 years . Some years later , the German anatomist Georg von Meissner ( 1829 -- 1905 ) studied friction ridges , and five years after this , in 1858 , Sir William James Herschel initiated fingerprinting in India . In 1877 at Hooghly ( near Calcutta ) he instituted the use of fingerprints on contracts and deeds to prevent the then - rampant repudiation of signatures and he registered government pensioners ' fingerprints to prevent the collection of money by relatives after a pensioner 's death . Herschel also fingerprinted prisoners upon sentencing to prevent various frauds that were attempted in order to avoid serving a prison sentence . </P>
when was fingerprinting first used by the police
In 1840