John Edgar Hoover

Contributions to Forensic Science

• J. Edgar Hoover was the director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for more than 45 years!

• In 1924 Edgar's interest in the science department of criminal affairs led him to have the F.B.I. to use the science in the field.

• Hoover established the FBI's national fingerprint depository and crime laboratory.

• In addition, he made the bureau's new fingerprint collection a national resource.

• Edgar focused on fingerprints in the beginning and hired a team later to help agents out in the field for scientific evidence.

• Edgar focused on fingerprints in the beginning and hired a team later to help agents out in the field for scientific evidence.

• Hoover had lectures presented on criminological subjects like handwriting, fingerprints, and ballistics.

• Hoover eventually established a training program for forensic science based in Chicago to teach agents these criminological subjects.

• Hoover pushed for a separate department and even established a state of the art lab in which the teams could assist in crimes through science.

Citations

• Fox, J. (n.d) The Birth of the FBI’s Technical Laboratory—1924 to 1935. fbi.org. Retrieved September 04, 2012, from http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/highlights-of-history/articles/laboratory