SketchCop®

Digital Solutions for Facial Imaging & Identification

Michael W. Streed

Making the Move from Pencils to Pixels, Watch it here!

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I hope you’re enjoying yourself while being careful and being safe. Over here we’ve been busy making the pivot to forensic video. Although it impacts the work we do with facial composites, I’ve found that it’s also a great compliment and a welcomed addition to the services we provide to our clients. We’ll have more about that next month.

On a related note, in our efforts to spread the word about our work in the forensic art space, we were asked to provide webinars to Wacom Technology (www.wacom.com) and B&H Photo (www.bhphotovideo.com/). Both companies have a tremendous global reach and I’m grateful that they chose me to share my passion with their respective audiences.

This month I’m happy to share a recording of Part 2 from my two-part B&H webinar – Making the Move from Pencils to Pixels.

For those of you who did not attend and are curious about the techniques I use to create the faces of crime, click on the links below.

https://livestream.com/bheventspace/events/9572637

I’ll look up part 1 and forward that to you soon!

I really enjoyed presenting the information and I hope you enjoy watching them. As always, feel free to reach out to me via e-mail at: Contact@SketchCop.com

In the meantime, stay safe, be well and as always…Keep on Sketching!

Get Ready to Train – COURSE ANNOUNCEMENT

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Welcome to summer everyone! Last month on social media; we announced an agreement we recently signed with the Sherlock Institute of Forensic Science in Delhi, India.

Our products, services and training are now being offered to law enforcement agencies across India.To launch our training initiative, the Sherlock Institute of Forensic Science is hosting a 4-hour, online training course – Introduction to Creating Digital Faces for Law Enforcement. The course description is provided below. We have also attached a course flier with other details including dates and time.

You are all encouraged and invited to attend. This is an introduction course that will be followed by more advanced topics.

PDF training materials will be provided and as a BONUS those attending will receive a special 30% discount on my book, Creating Digital Faces for Law Enforcement (Elsevier/Academic Press)

Attendees will also receive a course certificate.

Introduction to Creating Digital Faces for Law Enforcement – (4 hours) Course Flyer

Creating Digital Faces for Law Enforcement is our comprehensive forensic facial imaging training course.

This introductory course will familiarize students with forensic art, the ninth forensic science discipline officially recognized by the International Association for Identification.

The course is based upon the book – Creating Digital Faces for Law Enforcement (Elsevier/Academic Press) written by Michael W. Streed, your course instructor.

Michael is one of the world’s most experienced forensic artists and is the developer of SketchCop® Facial Composite System Software. He’s looking forward to introducing students to the following topics:

  • What makes a good forensic artist?
  • Suggested Materials to Make the Move from Pencils to Pixels.
  • Why it’s important to know the human face.
  • How to create the environment for a successful interview.
  • Facial composite software versus traditional methods. Which is best?
  • Case Study: The Abduction & Murder of Samantha Runnion – The Value of Using Child Witnesses to Create Facial Composites
  • LIVE test interview – Demonstration of how a facial composite is created

Register for Introduction to Creating Digital Faces for Law Enforcement

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at: Contact@SketchCop.com

We hope you are as excited about attending this course. I’m thrilled be teaching it!

In the meantime, please enjoy a great summer. Stay safe, be well and as always, Keep on Sketching!

Police Composite Sketches & COVID-19

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Hello Everyone!

With many of us sidelined due to COVID-19, also known as the Coronavirus; you can bet that criminals are still finding ways to scam, rob and steal from us. Although crime is reportedly down across the board, violent crime remains prevalent and is likely to rise post COVID-19.

As a Certified Forensic Artist with 40 years of experience; I have experience assisting law enforcement with investigations that have drawn international interest, along with many that barely made a whisper.

For me, every case is important. The common denominator being the relationship I develop with my eyewitness and law enforcement investigators.

The ability to sit close to the eyewitness to provide strength and comfort is an element of the police composite sketch interview that helps lead to success. Equally important is the professional relationships I’m able to build with investigators.

Before COVID-19 we were all together in close quarters, often less than 6 feet apart. Tears were shed, handshakes were exchanged and sometimes eyewitnesses were so thankful that it wasn’t uncommon to receive an occasional hug.

Today that’s all changed. Social distancing, wearing masks, no physical contact and other stringent guidelines have made connecting with people on a personal level much more challenging. Coupled with police departments closing their lobbies to public access, it makes it even more difficult to schedule and complete a police composite sketch appointment with an eyewitness.

Five years ago, long before COVID-19 reared its ugly head, I was already providing remote, online police composite sketch interviews using online meeting software. Leveraging communication technology allowed me to quickly and easily connect with eyewitnesses, minus the physical presence. In a majority of these cases I’m thousands of miles away.

Despite the distance, I’m able to create successful police composite sketches and provide the same services as if I was there onsite.

Investigators readily embrace the concept because they can request a police composite sketch and conduct their investigations while they wait for me to make the appointment and later e-mail them the completed sketch. Often times within the same day.

Busy eyewitnesses enjoy the safety and convenience, often times logging into a remote police composite interview session from their smartphones. Or if they prefer, from the safety and comfort of their home or office.

For years there’s been the belief that the police sketch artist needs to be in the same room as an eyewitness to judge their veracity and gauge their emotion. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

In addition to providing law enforcement agencies with remote police composite sketches, I’ve been able to train police departments and students from around the globe without having to step foot in their country.

I’ve also been able to upload 3-D files and create skull models of homicide victims for facial reconstructions without compromising evidence. Age progressions, postmortem images, 1-to-1 facial comparisons and analysis, image enhancement, photo-lineups and any other forensic facial imaging can be done remotely simply by uploading and downloading files and photos.

Our investment in technology makes this an effective, affordable solution for law enforcement without having to make the investment themselves. As a matter of fact, my company, SketchCop® Solutions provides contract forensic facial imaging services with two of the nation’s largest and most historically significant police departments.

COVID-19 will change the way we interact socially. How we move forward to effectively fight crime depends on how we use our imagination; including how far we allow ourselves to think outside the box or how far we’re willing to wander outside our comfort zones.

Since we won’t be going back, it’s time to move forward. I’m not waiting. I hope you aren’t either.

Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions about our products and training.  So until next month, be safe, stay well and as always – KEEP ON SKETCHING!

Special Discount and SketchCop® Online Academy Update

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Hello Everyone,

I hope that you and your families are doing well as we work our way through what I hope DOES NOT become our new normal. Hopefully, it won’t be long until we can all return to work and resume our favorite activities.

Here at SketchCop® Online Academy, we’ve been using our time to work on presenting new material and curriculum as online, distance learning becomes even more important for future skills training and development.

But before we get into that…I wanted to share some good news!

As a reward for your continued loyalty and support SketchCop® Online Academy is offering a 30% discount off on our textbook – Creating Digital Faces for Law Enforcement.

 

This is the text you’ll need as we work our way through several training modules. Material in the book will be referenced often as reading assignments throughout our series of short courses.

To purchase the book visit: https://www.elsevier.com/books/creating-digital-faces-for-law-enforcement/streed/978-0-12-805102-3

Go to the Shopping Cart and before Check Out enter the promo code: FOREN320 to receive your discount.

But wait! There’s more good news!

This week we added two NEW, FREE documents for your review.

Visit www.SketchCopAcademy.com to download.

Also –

  • We are working with a vendor to make facial identification catalogs for sale through the academy – a MUST HAVE for forensic artists, along with a short course on how to use them during a composite sketch interview.
  • We have collaborated with Wacom on a contest to see who can come the closest to creating a simulated composite sketch of a fictitious Wacom Cintiq tablet thief.

You have until April 23rd to enter and compete to win one of three prizes that Wacom is awarding. I’ll be helping Wacom judge the final three winners.

For entry requirements and more details visit: https://community.wacom.com/welcome-to-the-wacom-files/

  • Those who cannot afford a Wacom graphic display/pen tablet will be happy to know that we are continuing our reseller’s relationship with XP Pen to make their graphic displays and pen tablets available for sale through the Academy.
  • Coming soon! A FREE download of our composite sketch interview worksheet and a new course-TBA are also in the works.

I hope you are all as excited as I am about the recent developments at our Online Academy. Once the shelter at home restrictions are lifted and new social distancing guidelines are in place, we will schedule a hands-on course at our training facility – The SketchCop® Academy at The Vollmer Institute in beautiful Orange County, California.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. In the meantime, stay well and be safe. Until next month…

Keep on sketching!

 

 

The SketchCop versus the Coronavirus

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Hello Everyone,

What a crazy month this has been, both here and abroad! I’ve been doing the best I can not to play into the fear and the hype, but to err on the side of caution – I’m playing it safe and staying close to home.

However, it’s sometimes necessary to leave the safety and security of your home and get out to mix and mingle. It’s impossible to stay at home all of the time. Right now, venturing out in public requires that you follow precautions like washing your hands, using anti-bacterial wipes, or spray. Maintaining your distance to avoid people who are contagious is especially important. These are precautions we should practice anyway, with or without the Coronavirus.

Personally, I’ve always viewed obstacles as opportunities. It’s my opinion that we emerge from a crisis stronger than before. Surviving a crisis often leads us to form a different point of view, rethink our values or to look deep within ourselves and make individual self-improvements that lead us to become more educated, skilled or better informed.

During these next few weeks, I’ll be examining my own circumstance and use the time to renew my dedication to personal health through lessening my food intake, eat healthier and find better ways to exercise outside the gym.

I’ll also make time to practice my artistic skills and catch up on organizational or work products. Or, watch some webinars, read technical material and listen to some of my favorite podcasts. Maybe I’ll even meditate and nurse my bonsai tree back to health.

Some days I’m sure to be less ambitious. I might just say f-it and I’ll sit on the couch, devour a bag of Doritos and randomly sketch stuff while binge-watching Netflix.

Whatever I, or we choose to do, it’s my belief that we’ll gain the most valuable education about ourselves. For example, what lengths we are willing to go to so that we can adapt and survive in this ever-changing world of ours.

And, when this crisis is over and the cloud of uncertainty has lifted and we resume our regularly scheduled social programming, it’s important that don’t forget the lessons we learned.

But in this moment, I ask that you LIVE …cautiously and take care of yourself and your families. I’ll be doing the same. Maybe we could all spend our down time sketching. After all, there’s no better way to express yourself than observing and sketching the things around you. Or, just draw those objects floating around in your head. I can’t think of a better way to relax and relieve stress. Can you?

Thanks for letting me share my thoughts with you. Next month, we’ll tackle a lighter topic. In the meantime, be well, stay safe and as always…

Keep on sketching!

I LOVE Sketching and Catching Crooks. Don’t you?

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February’s half-done and there’s still love in the air! And let me tell you…there’s nothing I LOVE more than catching crooks!

In this month’s newsletter, I thought I would share my method for creating effective facial composites.

As a reminder, we are in the last 2 days of a giveaway, – one lucky winner will receive a FREE 30-minute sketch lesson, courtesy of SketchCop® Solutions and Debbie Mack’s Crime Café.

To top things off, I’m also going to provide you with 30% discount off my book – Creating Digital Faces for Law Enforcement. (Keep reading to find the discount code.)

Who says I don’t love you all?

Now, let’s get to it…

In the early days, most law enforcement agencies used Smith & Wesson’s IdentiKit to create facial composites.

The Identikit was a small wooden box containing hundreds of facial features printed on small sheets of acetate. Officers would assemble them at the direction of the eyewitness to create a facial composite. In my opinion, it was a crude tool, but an effective one.

Once computers introduced us to facial composite software; I made the decision to get involved, hoping to influence the technology.

Most of my work with software companies involved customer training. Back then, my training was structured in separate blocks, leaving the student to figure out how to apply the training once it was concluded.

Today, we’ve developed a better way to combine the training blocks in a way that’s more cohesive.

Our current training – Creating Digital Faces for Law Enforcement uses The SketchCop® Solution – A 5-Step Method for Creating Effective Facial Composites.

Whether you’re sketching by hand or using a software-driven solution similar to our SketchCop® Facial Composite System software program, the method remains the same. To help you better understand our system; I’ve described the steps below for you to follow:

  • Gather
  • Build
  • Edit
  • Refine
  • Finish
  • Review – police reports or other related material
  • Interview – Build rapport, utilize cognitive interview technique
  • Guide your eyewitness through the on-screen facial component libraries the SketchCop® Facial Component System software program
  • Use built-in modification tools to establish correct facial proportion by adjusting the length, width and proper location of select facial components
  • Use SketchCop®’s edit & paint tools to complete the facial composite, or export the composite image to an outside program, like Adobe® or Corel® products
  • Provide the eyewitness with a final opportunity to review the image and make final refinements
  • Save image
  • Print a copy of the facial composite, date and sign it along with the eyewitness
  • Close out the interview, reassure them and thank them for remaining engaged in the investigation
  • Deliver the facial composite to the requesting investigator and debrief him/her. Do not allow the eyewitness to leave until OK’d by the detective

If you follow the above steps, you should have no problem creating an effective facial composite.

To learn more, click on the link below to order your discounted copy of my book – Creating Digital Faces for Law Enforcement (Elsevier/Academic Press)

https://www.elsevier.com/books/creating-digital-faces-for-law-enforcement/streed/978-0-12-805102-3

Use the code FOREN320 at checkout to receive your discount.

Also, enter the giveaway for a FREE 30-minute sketch lesson. Click on the link below to learn how.

http://www.debbimack.com/blog/guest-posts/a-guest-post-and-giveaway-by-michael-streed/

Thanks again for tuning in! I hope you enjoy your offers. Stay with us for more exciting news coming next month.

Until then, keep sketching!