Who is credited as the first European to utilize friction ridge prints for identification?

The first European credited with utilizing friction ridge prints for identification is Sir William Herschel. In the late 19th century, Herschel, a British civil servant in India, began using fingerprints to help distinguish between individuals for various administrative purposes, particularly in contracts and legal documents. His work laid the groundwork for the use of fingerprints as a means of personal identification and contributed significantly to the field of forensic science. Herschel’s approach was pioneering, as it shifted the perception of fingerprints from mere patterns to a reliable method for confirming identity, which played an essential role in later developments in fingerprint analysis and forensic investigations.

The other individuals mentioned are notable figures in different aspects of forensic science, but they did not specifically pioneer the use of friction ridge prints for identification in the same way. Alphonse Bertillon is known for developing the anthropometric system for identifying individuals based on physical measurements, while Edmond Locard is renowned for the formulation of Locard's Exchange Principle. Hans Gross contributed to the field of criminalistics, but he was not the first to initiate fingerprinting as a method of identification.