It’s a police tactic that uses both science and art.
From Jack the Ripper to outlaws of the wild west — or even more recently, in the case of the Golden State killer — for hundreds of years, investigators have used sketches to try to identify offenders.
Many early drawings were fairly crude. Often, they were more like artist renditions of what evil looked like versus accurate depictions of what witnesses saw.
Over the years, experts have fine-tuned their techniques and even now police agencies all over the world use sketches when they don’t know who committed the crime — and when there’s no surveillance video, only witness or victim accounts.
Follow along on this special edition of Crime Beat podcast as Global News crime reporter Nancy Hixt gives a behind-the-scenes look at how one composite sketch artist uses science to draw out his suspects.
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Contact:
Twitter: @nancyhixt
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NancyHixtCrimeBeat/
Email: nancy.hixt@globalnews.ca
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