Alphonse Bertillon (1853-1914). 1898 illustration of the French police officer and biometrics pioneer Alphonse Bertillon. Bertillon developed a general identification system in 1883 for use by the police. Known as anthropometry, there were ten standard measurements, such as height, width of head, and reach of the right arm. These were then used to identify criminals who gave false names. Anthropometry was eventually replaced by fingerprinting. Bertillon also worked in other areas of forensics, such as ballistics and document examination.