Detective – criminologist. History of the French “Surete.” Surete (safety), so called criminal police of France in those years, was the oldest, with the world’s richest traditions of the criminal police. Its history is rooted in the times of Napoleon.
Prior to this, the police service in France, dealt mainly with tracking down and arrest of political opponents, rather than suppression of criminal offenses. It was only in 1810, when a wave of crime was ready to flood the Paris Surete the hour of birth, and decided the fate of its founder Eugène François Vidocq.
Up to 35 years Vidocq led a promiscuous life full of adventure.
The son of a baker from Arras, he was an artist, a soldier, a sailor, puppeteer, prisoner (he beat officer seduced one of his girlfriends) have committed several shoots. Once he managed to escape from prison in a stolen form them policeman, another time Vidocq rushed to the dizzying heights of the prison tower in boiling water protekav- necks beneath the river. But he had no luck: every time it caught. Finally, he was sentenced to hard labor and put in chains. In prisons Vidocq years lived side by side with the most dangerous criminals of the day. Among them were members of the notorious French Clan Cornu killers, nurture of their children’s killers, and so they quickly become accustomed to their craft, they head for the game gave the dead.
In 1799, Vidocq makes his third, this time a successful escape. For ten years he lived in Paris, engaged in trade of clothing.
But all these years, former neighbors in prisons blackmailed him, issuing threats to the authorities. Hate them, Vidocq took a decisive step in his life. He went to the police prefecture of Paris and offered use of its marks of the criminal world to fight crime. During this Vidocq I requested that he be pardoned criminal record. Vidocq asked to entrust him with the fight against crime in Paris.
For the purpose of the conspiracy, he was again arrested, and the subsequent release was held under the guise of a new successful escape. Vidocq His residence is situated near the Prefecture of Police. Employees were selected on the basis of them, “Only a criminal offense will be able to overcome.” First on Vidocq worked a total of 4, then 12, and later 20 former prisoners, which he paid from a special fund and the secret that he had passed the railway training. During the year, 12 employees of Vidocq arrested 812 murderers, thieves, burglars, robbers and swindlers, abolished brothels, in which he did not dare to turn up no magistrate, no one inspector.
Soon, the organization was named Vidocq “Surete” ( “Security”). Despite the hostile attitude towards it, and it was she who was the germ of the French criminal police.
Familiarity with the underworld, habits and methods of “work” of criminals, patience, intuition, the ability to get used to the image, a rare visual memory and archive, which was collected information about all the friends Vidocq criminals, ensure the success of his work.
In 1833, Vidocq resigned as the new prefect of police Henry Giske objected to the fact that all criminal police consisted of former prisoners. In 1857, Vidocq died. It is interesting to have lived the rest of his life, had a private detective bureau (probably the world’s first), was a wealthy merchant, writer and friend of the great Balzac, who had once prompted themes for future novels.
Over time, the archive Vidocq turned into a huge bureaucracy, inhospitable mountains of paper clutter, dust, gas-lit rooms Prefecture. Therefore, already in 1879, the Paris police was going through a deep crisis, which brought to the arena of history of criminology Alphonse Bertillon.
Alphonse Bertillon was a young man with a pale, thin, sad face of cold, slow motion and expressionless voice. He suffered from indigestion, nasal bleeding, terrible attacks of migraine and has been closed so the person that produced a feeling of revulsion.
His isolation was combined with distrust, sarcasm, malice, annoying, thoroughness and complete lack of a sense of beauty. And only thanks to his father’s affairs was the place the clerk at the police prefecture. His job was to fill in the card criminals. They now and then repeated: “high”, “low”, “medium” growth, “ordinary person”, “no distinguishing marks.” All those descriptions came to thousands of people.
