Law and order in the 1800s in New Zealand was very different from that of today. Hamish McNeilly discovers the fascinating mugshot collection held by the New Zealand Police Museum and what it tells us about early settler life in Otago.
Welcome to CSI New Zealand in the 19th century.
The New Zealand police force came into existence on September 1, 1886, and the same year commercial photographers and enthusiastic amateurs began taking mugshots on behalf of the fledgling force. The quality of those first photos variede widely and they provide a fascinating insight of settler life.
The New Zealand Police Museum supplied 51 mugshots from the Otago area from 1886 to 1890, which, in addition to their photographs, list prisoners' aliases, "marks and peculiarities" and, of course, their crimes.
These include charges you are unlikely to see on the court pages of the Otago Daily Times today: illicit distillation, larceny, horse stealing, riotous conduct, forgery and uttering, and travelling by steamer without paying a fare.
And the penalty imposed on Andrew Munroe for not paying his passage on that steamer - one month in jail.
In the 1880s, crimes including vagrancy or obscene language resulted in a three-month stint of hard labour at the local prison, while convictions for manslaughter or rape resulted in sentences up to eight years.
Aliases include "Cockney Joe" and "Kelly the Rake", and the occupations listed include ploughman, saddler, teacher, and the splendidly apt "larrikin".
Some prisoners were described as being "swarthy" or "sallow", and the heaviest weighed 13 stone and 13 pounds (82 kg), while the lightest was a diminutive 52kg. Several prisoners even managed to put on weight during incarceration.
Scars were used to identify some prisoners, such as Oamaru man Alfred Lovegrove, convicted of attempted rape in 1886, who was identified by a scar on the left side of his neck.
Charles Gibson, of Oamaru, convicted on two charges of false pretences, was said to have a double row of teeth in his lower jaw, while another man was described as being of "eccentric habit".
It wasn't until 1904 that taking mugshots became standard practice for police, and those staff who had their own cameras or could handle a camera were paid for each photograph or exempted from night duty.
While mugshots were viewed as an important tool in the police arsenal, they had their limitations and even raised the ire of members of the public, who wanted a photographic portrait but did not want to appear criminal. Others were concerned the use of mugshots was tainting the art of photography.
However, the major pitfall of mugshots lay at the eyes of those looking at them, and the hands of those filing them.
Those using mugshots still relied on a subjective visual identification of offenders, and determining the best way to file and review each photograph was a constant headache in the days before computers.
Police were assisted by mugshots taken in profile from 1904 and the introduction of fingerprinting, with the first criminal conviction using fingerprint evidence recorded in New Zealand in May 1905.
Police Museum interpretation and experience officer Naias Mingo said the museum had many prison books in its collection, each containing individual mugshots from all over the country.
"People are fascinated by the mugshots and many visitors want to know more about them. Most people want to know what type of crimes they have committed and what sentences they received."
Mrs Mingo said the most common question from visitors concerned the prisoners' hands, and why so many mugshots feature them holding their hands up to their chest.
With fingerprinting still decades away, prisoners were asked to hold up their hands as another means of identification.
"If you look closely, you can see missing fingers, scars and even missing hands. People's hands can be just as unique as their faces."
Dunedin prisoner Charles Fowler, convicted of "homebreaking" in 1888, can be seen holding up his hands, with the middle finger of his right hand clearly missing.
Visitors to the museum usually found one person to whom they looked similar, but no-one had yet identified a relative, she said.
"We do have inquiries from the public about the availability of relatives' mugshots. However, as our collection of prison books is limited, we refer most inquiries to Archives New Zealand."
Some of the mugshots held at the museum will form part of a research project.
The use of mugshots stayed relatively the same for more than a century, with police manually searching printed photographs up until the mid-1990s. But this all changed with the arrival of digital photography and the introduction of facial-identification software.
Today, police take fingerprints of each person arrested, before taking a digital photo which includes a photo board detailing the individual's name, identity number and when and where the photo was taken.
All digital photographs are forwarded to Police National Headquarters, where they are stored, unless the suspect is later acquitted, in which case, the images are destroyed.
Mugshots are registered with facial-recognition software, which can match features with others with similar-looking faces.
These digital records are also used to create "books" of associates, such as gangs, and can be used to create line-ups when police are looking for a suspect.
At a glance
• The earliest mugshot in existence was taken by Belgian officials in 1843.
• The New York Police Department opened its first "rogues' gallery" to the public in 1858, so residents could familiarise themselves with local criminals. Galleries later opened in Germany (1864), Russia (1867) and England (1870).
• "Wanted" posters were made famous in the American Wild West during the 1860s.
• The New Zealand police force was officially established on September 1, 1886, with police collecting photographs of prisoners the same year.
• In April 1904, the monthly Police Gazette published its first mugshot of wanted criminal John McKenzie - a convicted rapist wanted for murder.
• In 1912, the Prisons Amendment Act officially sanctioned the use of mugshots, with all accused or first-time convicted prisoners having to submit to being photographed and fingerprinted, including by use of "reasonable force", if necessary.
• By 1913, over 1000 photographs were taken at police headquarters, with 2000 taken elsewhere in New Zealand.
- SOURCE: NEW ZEALAND POLICE MUSEUM
