The Triumph of Profiling by Bernard Andreas; Pakis Valentine A.;

Author:Bernard, Andreas; Pakis, Valentine A.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Polity Press
Published: 2019-07-28T16:00:00+00:00

Around the beginning of the twentieth century, the police investigator was a human step counter – a Fitbit wristband made of flesh and blood – but this tool was not used to benefit his own well-being but rather to improve the productivity of the justice system. Things would be much easier, according to Gross, if all of this counting did not have to be done by the human investigator himself but could rather be accomplished by technical means. And, in fact, he goes on to discuss just such an apparatus in his Handbook. In a section devoted to the “equipment of the investigating officer,” he lists what the officer's “travelling office box or bag” ought to contain. One of the items on this list is a so-called pedometer, which he describes as follows: “A pedometer, though not perhaps indispensable, is most useful; it is the shape and size of a watch. If one wishes to measure a long distance, one sets the needles on all the dials (units, tens, &c.) at zero, puts the instrument in the pocket and walks off.”38 Gross ends this discussion by addressing the question of where the investigator ought to keep this small apparatus on his body. Although it might seem obvious to wear it around one's wrist, Gross adds the following remark: “For greater certainty one may put the instrument in one's boot, when every step will certainly be registered. Thus better results are obtained than by merely counting paces, while the great advantage accrues that he who carries it can look about him and devote his attention to other matters, which is quite impossible while continually counting.”39 Like precursors to today's users of “Nike+,” who slide their GPS-supported step counters into the designated pocket on their running shoe, the police officers envisioned by Gross are supposed to patrol their districts with this new apparatus stuck in their boot. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the “step” thus became an object of exact calculation, and the aim of these calculations was to help police investigators to take control of exceptional situations in which mere places have become crime scenes and every stray detail might provide a crucial piece of evidence.

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