Composite Drawing

The “Police Sketch Artist” is one of the many tools that Law Enforcement utilizes in the daily battle to fight and solve crime. Although the word “Artist” is used to describe the person who makes the Police Sketch, composite drawings are not considered art.

A composite drawing represents someone’s memory. A suspect composite sketch enables officers and the public to better imagine how a suspect may appear based on the witness descriptive information, rather then developing an erroneous image in their own minds based solely on a verbal or written description. A Composite Drawing is only as good as the memory of the victim or witness of the crime.

A Composite Drawing is requested when there is a suspect whose identity is unknown to the victim/witness. The Police Sketch Artist will meet with the victim/witness and discuss the details of the crime in order to check for consistencies/inconsistencies. When the decision to do a composite is made, the victim/witness is shown a series of photographs, which depict different parts of the head, face and hair. The victim/witness selects the images that most resemble these parts of the suspect's head, face and hair. The Police Sketch Artist will begin building the puzzle presented to them in order to complete a drawing which best reflects the suspect frozen in the victim/witness’ mind. The Composite Drawing is complete when the victim/witness says, “Stop.”