Bertillon System Cards Completed Bertillon cards for Eugene Durand and Georges Pimpeterre. Alphonse Bertillon was a Parisian police clerk who devised a system for recording information that could be used to identify people in police custody. This involved taking standardised photographs of the person's face in full and in profile as well as recording various measurements and distinguishing features such as hair and eye colour, scars and tattoos. These were all noted on cards known as the "Bertillon System Cards". Bertillon also devised a method for classifying and filing the cards so they could be easily retrieved. 1888