This is really cool: photographs used to prevent crime. The year is 1912. Wealthy homeowners want to protect what is theirs. So, what do they do? They hire a group of photographers to go around and photograph people as a way to deter crime.
Photographing Evil
It has been said that one big electric arc light in a hitherto dark alley is better than two policemen. Criminals, like certain insects, prefer the dark.
But electric lights do not scare away all the powers of evil. The social evil, for instance, flourishes where the lights are the brightest and the pianola sounds loudest.
And that is where some good folks down in Louisville have invented a new thing under the sun. In certain squares in the Kentucky metropolis questionable resorts were opened despite the protests of homeowners. The police were blind.
Then the homeowners got together and hired a staff of photographers, who by night and by day, snapshot the habitués of the places. Some well known men are said to have been caught by the camera.
We venture to predict right now that the folks who want to own homes in a decent neighborhood are going to win. Evil — even when protected by the police and the grafters — can not stand being photographed and published to the world.
Source: The Day Book (Chicago, Illinois newspaper). June 22, 1912.
