One of the cool things about the roles I’ve held is the amazing experiences and people who crossed my path. At one time, I had the opportunity to meet an FBI sketch artist. Terrific gal who was, effectively, self-taught. She’d always loved art, but who would have thought a love of art would turn into sketching criminals?
She was in the area for a week, and our team had arranged for her to do a presentation. As part of the presentation, she suggested she sketch someone. She would use that to explain how she works with victims and witnesses to develop perpetrator sketches. Could the audience figure out who that sketch was?
Early the morning of her presentation, a team member took my photo. It was just a plain old photo, as you’d see me walking down the street. Two other team members then met with her and, using my photo and her key questions, attempted to describe me. Because this wasn’t an actual “criminal apprehension sketch” (at least so far!), it didn’t take as long as a typical session might.
She shared it can sometimes take many long hours the person she’s working with is a high-trauma victim or witness (i.e. murder, sexual assault, etc). She shared that working with children was emotionally very difficult. I can only imagine. The team members would describe a feature, she’d ask them additional questions and sketch as they talked. She’d then share with them what she’d put on paper, asking them to validate if it looked right. Back and forth they went for two hours. They told me afterward my nose took over an hour (thank you, daddy, for my inheritance!).
It was amazing to hear my team members describe what it was like to go through that exercise, how challenging it was to get the description right so that the artist could sketch accurately. While they were looking at a still photo ….and don’t forget, we had worked together a couple years at that point…we all couldn’t help but think of victims who may only have had seconds to memorize their perpetrator. I can’t imagine what it must be like to relive a crime through describing your perpetrator.
So, what do you think? Comparing the photo with the sketch, could you have identified me? Let me know what you think in the comment section below. I’d love to hear from you!
At first glance, my thoughts were…”hmmmm… nope, not Barb.” But, looking at it and swiping right to the sketch, and then left to the original, and then right, to the sketch, and back to the original, a few times ( and of course blowing both pictures up to see close), I could see it! What a cool exercise and I’m even more impressed she was self-taught.
Keep in mind she only spent about 2 hours. Typically, her time with witnesses is not only many, many hours, but often several separate sessions.