31 Amazing Photographs from vintage Police records

It’s interesting how some photographs that were taken for purely practical reasons somehow become artistic as well as historical statements. It doesn’t get a lot more practical than Police forensic photos. These were taken, and still are, at every crime scene or accident in order to provide specific details of how it happened. Over the years though, with a lot of things changing in every aspect of daily life, these photos have become visual references of a time most of us can only imagine or see glimpses of in movie reproductions. Besides that, some of them are as interesting as they are graphic. Some of the mug shots from the early “20s and “30s look like carefully staged artistic portraits.

Keep in mind, some of them may not be suitable for viewing by the more sensitive readers.

A fire at a shop front in Sydney, about 1937.

Car accident near Sydney Harbor Bridge, June 11 ,1947

Gangster ( center) and detective ( right), early 1930s

Mug shot, cca. 1920s

Pickpocket demonstration

Crime scene, late 1930s

Wondering child, cca. 1920s

Scene of attempted suicide, 1948.

Illegal abortion facility, late 1930s

Mug shot, late 1920s

Illegal ticket sellers on a street,1948

Car accident, 1940

Fatality from collapsed wall, 1926

Sabotage kit, 1919

A group of criminals ,1921

Dead body, cca 1930. Probably someone who fell of a building. The bottle next to him is cough syrup.

The bar where the boxer William “Bobby” John Lee was murdered, 1951

A collision between a tram and a coal truck, 1940s.

Self-defense demonstration, 1930s

Mug shot, 1930s

Missing persons photo, 1929

Robbery, Los Angeles, early 1950s

Breaking and entering, late 1930s

Masked civilians and detectives, 1933

Men connected to a Motor accident, 1940s

Car Crash, 1940

Mug shot of De Gracy and Edward Dalton, around 1920.

Mug shot of man refusing to open his eyes,1928

Crime scene, 1950

Homicide scene in a restaurant, 1916