Michigan State Police have a team of sketch artists that help catch criminals across the state.
Their job is to bring a witness description to life.
“People remember more than they think they do,” Detective Sgt. Jason Matter said.
In addition to being an audio/visual analyst, Matter is a forensic sketch artist for MSP.
Matter said when it comes to sketching a suspect, it’s all about the art of the interview. Especially, if the witness or victim being interviewed has experienced a trauma.
“Trying to walk them through the day,” he said. “Go through what happened 10-15 minutes prior to the encounter and then that tends to help them remember the outfit they were wearing, the color of their hair, whether they had facial hair or not, earrings, tattoos, things like that.”
When asked what features make a sketch most effective, Matter said scars, tattoos or any distinctive characteristic that can’t be easily altered.
As for his portfolio, two sketches stand out as being especially helpful to the investigations.
The first was the ‘Ferndale Flasher,’ a nickname given to a suspect by a local radio station in 2018.
“In this case, the witness remembered a younger-looking white male, thinner, had some facial hair, (and) round glasses that was a significant feature and a headband on.”'
The suspect was identified and arrested within days of the sketch being released to the public.
Another notable case was a sketch of the man who shot and killed a Wayne State Police officer in 2016.
“The sketch ended up looking pretty similar to the person who committed the crime,” Matter said. “That person was a really good witness, they had really good recall on how their face looked, the facial hair and skin type, shape of the nose.”
Sketching with pencil and paper, Matter considers himself old school.
“There are options to use tablets and computer-aided drawing techniques,” Matter said. “Those don’t work as well for me because I’ve been using pencil and paper since I was 13.”
Christie Christman, a civilian sketch artist for MSP, uses a tablet to sketch.
Christman said there are benefits that come with the technology.
“You can kind of move things around, change the size (and) dimensions just using the digital software, instead of having to erase and start over,” Christman said.
A witness being interviewed will be given a book of faces to help guide the artist on facial features. The book features hundreds of faces, showcasing face shapes, eyes, noses, hairstyles and more.
MSP sketch artists services are available to every law enforcement agency and police department in the state free of charge. To request their services, law enforcement officials can call 517-241-8000.