Criminal leads are oftentimes solved with the aid of a composite sketch. These images were once drawn manually by forensic artists based on different testimonies, but the current world has seen a shift in the way these images are drawn.

Introducing SketchCop, a new and highly effective software tool that makes the world of composite sketching go round. In this blog, you will be introduced to how SketchCop operates, its functionalities, and some of the ways that it is revolutionizing how police departments apply forensic art to investigations.

What is SketchCop?

SketchCop is a highly advanced tool which is aimed at helping law enforcement officers and forensic artists draw detailed composites from accounts received by witnesses. Compared to the hand-drawing methods, the software enables creation of very accurate digital facial images in a short time. This software is easily understood and usable, so even people without intensive training in creating sketches useful for suspect identification and other crime-related circumstances can create highly professional look alike materials.

This software comes with a number of features that sets it apart from the rest, these are; the database option of the facial components, and the user-friendly interface of the software. It doesn’t matter if it was for police in a small town or a nationwide investigation; SketchCop is an application that assists investigators put faces to the crimes.

How Does SketchCop Work?

SketchCop works through the utilization of documents of witness identity with a deep CAD database of facial quarter parts. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how it works:

Witness Description Collection

The process begins with identification of a suspect entails a detailed description by an eyewitness or the victim him or herself. This includes; eye shape, nose shape, mouth shape, hair type, skin color, and even scars or tattoos. It is therefore to the advantage of any sketch that the description given is as specific and detailed as possible.

Facial Component Selection

From that input of the witness, the forensic artist goes ahead and chooses the right features on the face by referencing SketchCop’s library. With the software one can choose generic eyes, nose, ears and mouths and the software has many sizes as well. He then uses these features created to put together other components of the suspect’s face in the rough sketch form.

Customization and Refinement

The basic features of the sketch have to be drawn before the artist can refine any of the elements as needed. With SketchCop you can move the eyes, change the length of the nose, jaw line, and much more. The artist can also include specific characteristics as a scar, freckles or a tattoo so as to get the most realistic sketch.

Final Image Creation

When the artist is through with honing the aspects of the face, he or she is able to complete the composite sketch. The resulting output is polished and can either be printed or published to the general public or used in other investigations.

Element of the SketchCop Software

The SketchCop software features that makes it a must have in toolkits of the law enforcement officers. Here are some of the key features:

Extensive Facial Feature Database

Another great advantage of SketchCop is that it has many more facial components in the database. Because of the numerous options available, the package allows for designing a number of eyes, noses, mouth and any other body part of the face and thus comes up with a unique and detailed sketch.

User-Friendly Interface

SketchCop does not require the user to be a professional illustrator and artists and investigators can easily draw using the software. Another advantage and benefit it has over other software is that these sketches can be completed in minutes not hours.

Detailed Adjustments

It also includes many features that help to adjust details like skin color, the light and shadowing of pictures. This means the artist can superimpose a measure of realism to the composite sketch, which would be hard to accomplish using hand-drawn techniques.

Integration with Databases

The SketchCop is fully integrated with other law enforcement databases, and it could be incorporated into any current database. The likenesses produced with the software can potentially be aligned with a mug picture database or embedded in facial recognition systems for identification of suspects.

Why is SketchCop Important for Investigations?

Quick Turnaround

Hand drawings can take several hours of work in order to be made. See how SketchCop helps forensic artists come up with a nearly perfect likeness in a short time – efficient enough to serve the police’s need for speed. It is particularly important to achieve this kind of speed during the initial attempts to establish leads in an investigation.

Increased Accuracy

There’s a lot of distortion possible in the traditional format and eyewitness descriptions are only accurate in their own way. To minimize misidentification, SketchCop’s database of facial components is used on the applicant to result in the most accurate sketch as possible.

Widely Accessible

As demonstrated by the foregoing account, SketchCop is feasible for usage by police officers at different ranks of expertise. This means that even when there are no forensic artists in the team to help experts with the creation of composites it is still possible to come up with top-notch composites. It makes possible the creation of the visual evidence to a broader number of law enforcement agencies making the process a democratic one.

Public Engagement

Composite Sketch, once created, takes comparatively less time to be released to the public. This can give leads from people who might have come across the suspect or knows someone with such features. People can be really useful particularly in hunting for criminals especially in circumstances where evidence has run out.

Advantages of Using Digital Sketches over Traditional sketching.

Efficiency

In reality, using SketchCop to digitally sketch is way easier than hand sketching in this case. How efficient for artists; they no longer need to sketch their images from the onset and alter them manually because everything can be administered on the computer.

Collaboration

In the case of using digital files, it is very convenient to share such composite images as well as make certain changes, if needed. It indicates that while different investigators or forensic experts are working to improve the sketch, the results will be far superior.

Better Preservation

On remote digital sketches it is easier to save, backup, and retrieve the images as compared to manual sketches. This also provides an opportunity to archive sketches for future uses or when comparing with other agencies or during trial sessions.

SketchCop in Action: Real-Life Applications

SketchCop has been employed for all kinds of crimes ranging from petty theft to complex murder related incidents that are taken in a local police station. It has proved very useful where all that is available is a description from an eye witness. Through creation of realistic caricatures of the criminals, SketchCop has facilitated faster solution of incidents than would otherwise be achieved.

Conclusion

An effective tool in contemporary society, law enforcement activities, sketch can be generated using the software, which gives a fast, accurate, and efficient composite mapping from the descriptions given by the eyewitnesses. Due to the fact that the artist transforms simple descriptors into credible digital faces, SketchCop has adopted into the current investigation being a solution and faster suspect identification tool than before. Including SketchCop software in criminal investigations whether it is a small local case or a much bigger case is perfectly instrumental in finding the truth.