I've got a question/problem which I would like some help with. It relates to the history of computing, so I thought there might be someone on here who would have some answers!

I am interested in police services using an IBM punch card system to keep track circa 150,000 people between 1959-62 in France. This is something we came across in archive, which we have not heard much discussion about anywhere else.

The question I have is what kind of advantages would such a system have over manual file systems. Does anyone know about such punch card systems from this period, even if not used by the Secret Services, then any other groups - or police in other countries for example....

Many thanks for your help,

Scott