The SketchCop® Blog

Over the last year our newsletters have covered my thoughts about forensic facial imaging and its importance to law enforcement as an investigative/forensic tool. Now, it’s time to stop talking and time to start sketching!

Because you have waited so patiently, we are rewarding your patience with a live workshop.

Creating Digital Faces for Law Enforcement is a 2-day, ‘hands-on’ weekend (Saturday/Sunday) workshop that teaches students the proper foundation for obtaining key information needed to create and edit digital facial composites that help put a face on crime.

Note: Art skills are NOT required.

Our course is arguably the first of its kind to address the creation of software-driven facial composites for non-artist/technicians. Forensic science students, law enforcement or forensic science professionals/crime scene investigators looking to add another skill to your forensic toolkit, will benefit greatly by attending our workshop.

Those who are artists, a true crime junkies, authors, or just have a genuine interest in this course are also welcome to attend.

General course topics include:

• Facial anatomy
• Eyewitness interview
• Courtroom testimony
• Using Frontalis® Facial Composite System Software
• Image editing
• Practical exercises
• Additional topics as selected by instructor

Workshop students ARE REQUIRED to bring their own laptop computers running Windows® OS. Those using a MacBook, should be running Windows® Bootcamp, or Parallels Software.

Course materials include a 30-day trial of Frontalis® Facial Composite System Software, course handouts, a digital tablet and a Certificate of Attendance.

I am pleased to be instructing the workshop and look forward to meeting those who attend. As we prepare for the workshop, it would be helpful for you to let us know if you would be interested in attending.

If you’re in…and I hope you are. Then send me an e-mail at: Contact@SketchCop.com and provide your name and contact information so we can let you know when the course is ready to launch.

If you’ve been curious about how to make your move from pencils to pixels, now is the perfect time. Once we determine the number of students, we will release additional information about the cost, times, location and how to register.

Hello Everyone!,

I hope you all enjoyed a peaceful holiday season. With the new year in full-swing, it’s time to get back to work.

Here at SketchCop® Solutions we’re busy building upon what we started in 2018 with the launch of the SketchCop® Academy.

The idea to launch the academy was born through the many social media inquiries and e-mails I’ve received over the years. Through them, I learned there was great deal of interest about how forensic artists work. This includes art students who want to use their skills to give back to the community, practicing forensic artists and police agencies seeking a software-driven solution for creating facial composites, paired with relevant training.

It seemed like everyone was looking for a cost-conscious, convenient way to train as a forensic artist.

To kick things off, we currently offer three courses – How to Become a Forensic Artist, Forensic Art in Criminal Investigations and Why & When to Create a Facial Composite.

Many have already taken our FREE course – How to Become A Forensic Artist, while a few have gone on to complete one, or both of the other courses.

I know that many of you are itching for the drawing part to get started. The courses currently posted are designed to build a foundation and understanding of how forensic art works. They should be taken in the order listed above. We will be drawing soon.

In the meantime, we’ve been busy in the background. Since the last-quarter of 2018 we have partnered with targeted companies to access low-cost, reliable digital tools and software for you to purchase and use as we teach you how to go digital.

As a result of our efforts, SketchCop® Solutions is an official reseller for XP Pen Technologies and Beijing Veikk E-Commerce Co.,Ltd. Both manufacture pen tablets and graphic displays.

SketchCop® Solutions also offers Corel® software titles such as: Corel Painter and Painter Essentials.

And of course, our crown jewel – Frontalis® Facial Composite System Software is in the process of being rebranded. (More about that when it’s ready for re-release.)

Waiting for Frontalis® Facial Composite System re-release will allow us to gather everything under the SketchCop® umbrella to offer cohesive training that builds off of each product.

For now, we will continue to offer forensic art training that builds upon the foundation we have already established, providing you with a greater understanding about how the ‘non-art’ portion of being a forensic artist, some of which is detailed in my book – Creating Digital Faces for Law Enforcement.

We recommend you take the above courses and continue in the order we post them. Or, if you’re merely curious about the field and find some courses more to your liking than others, then please, feel free to enroll.

We appreciate your continued support. One of our goals this year is to increase our interaction with ALL of you.  I also encourage you to communicated back. I can be reached via e-mail at: Contact@SketchCop.com.

Or, you can connect with me on LinkedIn under my name: Michael W. Streed and on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter @TheSketchCop.

In the meantime, keep sketching and don’t forget to reach out. I would enjoy hearing from ALL of you!

For more information visit our website at: www.SketchCop.comor www.SketchCopAcademy.com

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year everyone! With the holidays quickly closing in, we’ll keep this month’s newsletter short and sweet. So, in the spirit of the holiday time crunch, let’s do a quick year-end review.

SketchCop® Online Academy started about a year ago with zero students and zero newsletter subscribers. Thanks to your support, we now have: 75 SketchCop® Online Academy signups, 69 students and 145 newsletter subscribers.

Once again, many thanks!

I would also like to thank Terri Armenta, our online academy administrator. She is also the owner of the Forensic Science Academy and Forensic Science Academy Online. (https://www.forensicscienceacademy.org/online-courses.html.) Terri helps keep me focused and runs the site like a well-oiled machine.

With all of us working together, I would say we’ve had a successful first year.

Our goal in 2018 was to introduce you to forensic facial imaging through our monthly newsletter. We also launched three online courses.

Looking forward to 2019, we’ve established partnerships to offer you tools for success, specifically digital pen tablets you may purchase for use during upcoming courses.

Starting soon, we’ll be launching product links to purchase a public version of Frontalis® Facial Composite System Software, pen tablets, Corel® Painter Essentials, Corel® Painter 2019 and Adobe® software.

This will allow us to focus more on developing your digital drawing skills, along with the practical aspect of the discipline which includes lessons in communication skills and rapport building.

Who knows? We might even have a hands-on workshop. I’ll have to talk to Terri and see what we can put together.  Either way, 2019 promises to be another year of growth and development for SketchCop® Academy Online. We hope that you’ll remain a part of it.

Thanks again for all your support! Don’t forget, if you have any suggestions, feel free to throw them my way.

In the meantime, please enjoy a safe and peaceful holiday season and we’ll see you all on the other side of the calendar page in 2019!

 

Last month, I travelled to Ghana at the invitation of Dr. Richmond Afoakwah, Department Head of the University of Cape Coast’s Department of Forensic Sciences. The university has built a robust program they continue to improve upon with help from the government and numerous grants.

So far, they have built a well-stocked lab with equipment students can use to hone their skills in a variety of forensic science disciplines. I was invited to present my software, Frontalis® Facial Composite System and to introduce them to the digital tools needed to integrate forensic facial imaging into their instructional program.

Up until then, I never travelled outside the continental United States. All I could boast was a couple of trips north to visit our Canadian neighbors. Now I had to get a passport, visa and a series of shots before I could even think about leaving the US.

When I arrived in Ghana, I was taken-in by the beauty of the Atlantic Ocean. I found the people of Ghana to be hard-working, entrepreneurial and kind.

Africa has an abundance of natural resources, many of which are shared with Ghana. While there, I enjoyed a trip to a rain forest, local hangouts and a coastal castle where slaves were processed before being shipped to the America’s both north and south, including the Caribbean.

My host, Dr. Richmond Afoakwah was great! He made sure I had comfortable accommodations and transportatio

He also made sure that I was well-fed with native Ghanaian dishes that I found both delicious and spicy!

Meanwhile, back at the university, I provided a short training program to faculty members interested in learning about using a software-driven approach to create facial composites. They were attentive and eager to learn.

On Wednesday, October 31^st, I gave a public presentation titled, Making the Move from Pencils to Pixels, touting the benefits of migrating from analog to digital. It too was well-received and well-attended.

Finishing the business-end of my week, I took part in a faculty meeting where curriculum was discussed for a new degree program.

High-ranking officials from the Ghana Police Service also attended. After I spoke about the benefits of integrating facial composites into their investigative protocol, they shared a story about how one of the only times they can remember using a facial composite resulted in an identification and arrest.

In that incident, the suspect was described having a large gap between his upper-front teeth. It was significant enough to call-in an artist to create the facial composite. Hopefully, I was able re-ignite their interest and over time, they will adopt a nationwide approach to creating facial composites using Frontalis® Facial Composite System Software.

With my work pretty much done at that point, the remainder of the week was spent taking in more sights and visiting the capital city of Accra.

Like most major cities, there were historical sights to explore, government offices to see, major traffic snarls to wait patiently in and ONE more, spicy, Ghanaian dish to experience before returning to the US.

Which, speaking of food, I stopped in the UK for a short layover and couldn’t find even (1) fish and chips joint in all of Heathrow Airport! That’s OK, maybe next time. (Thankfully, I did receive a home cooked meal from Mrs. Afoakwah which was worth making the trip!)

But until I return, I will hold fond memories of Ghana, its people and all the new friends I made while there.

 

 

Have you ever woke up in the middle of the night with a great idea?  Only to forget later because you fell back asleep without jotting it down? Maybe you did write your idea down or sketched it out. But when you sat down to flesh it out, you froze because you don’t know how, or where, to start?

Fear not. It happens to everyone. Whether you’re a content creator. write memos at work, or simple just enjoy random sketching or writing short stories for fun, we all get what’s commonly referred to as – writer’s block.

It happened to me when I wrote SketchCop – Drawing A Line Against Crime, During the writing process, my biggest challenge was writer’s block. After a career spent writing millions of words onto tens of thousands of pages of police reports, you would think that writing a book would be a simple task. Not true. Writers blockis something that creators commonly suffer from.

I’ll bet it’s already happened to you. Think back to when you were stuck staring at a blank computer screen. Instead of seeing the words you hoped to write, all you could see was the look of frustration staring back from the reflection of that empty page on your computer screen. It’s that look that makes you want to throw your hands in the air and give up. DON”T! Keep after it.

In my opinion, surrender is NEVER an option. But taking a short break never hurts. Many times, I’ll walk away and give my brain and my eyes a rest. You have to. Taking those occasional breaks and returning with a fresh set of eyes AND a new attitude is the best approach. Walking away from my work is a technique I learned as an artist. It’s something that I still do when I am working on commissioned art, or a forensic facial imaging project.

Here are some helpful hints that might help you overcome writer’s block.

#1 – Just start writing and keep on writing. Let your thoughts and words spill onto the page in their full glory. Don’t worry about poor spelling, poor grammar, or poor sentence structure. I wouldn’t even worry about how it reads. All that matters, at that point, is that you put something down. You can always go back and tidy things up later. Most important is that the idea gets on paper. (Besides, that’s what editors and supportive partners are for!)

#2) Keep a journal nearby. Or keep a pen in your pocket to jot ideas down. Napkins are always handy, or receipts that you keep stuffed inside your pockets. Or maybe, if you’re a tech geek like me, your smart phone or tablet will help. There are many times I have been jolted awake at 2 a.m. and just had to jot that idea down before the moment of inspiration passed.

#3 Create a quiet place to write or draw. Believe it or not, sometimes the noisiest places are the quietest.

#4 Remember – there is no perfect time to start writing or creating a piece of art. You just have to get started…at any place or anytime

I hope those tips are helpful. My best advice is not to panic. Writer’s blockwill happen. You just have to push through it. And before long, your book, or art project, will be finished and you’ll be ready to tackle the next one.

Each of us has a book inside of us just waiting to be written. Maybe, it’s like mine – true crime. Or maybe you have always enjoyed art and wanted to add another option to your law enforcement career. The SketchCop Academy is a great place to begin. The cool thing is – you don’t have to be an artist to create great faces. Only a desire to learn. We’ll teach you the rest.

The best way to begin is to sign up for our monthly newsletter, or maybe even a couple of courses. My recommendation? Get an idea of where you want to begin and then -GO FOR IT!

 

When I began my career as a forensic artist, the only tools I had was a #2 pencil, a sheet of cheap bond paper and a strong will to succeed. Back then, I knew nothing about cognitive interviewing, facial identification catalogs, victimology or the value of networking. I was a ‘street cop’ who viewed my skills as simply another tool to help capture more crooks.

Over the next four decades, I developed a much broader perspective. I became open to new tools and technology.

Regardless the method used, I found that a facial composite was a helpful tool that brought value to many criminal investigations.

Sadly, I’m not sure that many law enforcement professionals share my viewpoint. Over the last couple of years, I’ve noticed a downturn in the use of facial composites that I can only attribute to the following.

1. Expansion in the Use of CCTV Surveillance Cameras

Walk down the street and you’ll find cameras mounted everywhere, inside and out. They seem to be everywhere.

In my experience, they provide little in their ability to ID the suspect’s face. But, a facial composite paired with a photo depicting a clothing style and posture, may help lead to an identification.

2. Citizens Armed with Cellphone Cameras

Like CCTV cameras, they seem to be everywhere. While the photo may be of higher quality, sometimes the person on the other side of the lens doesn’t do a good job capturing the individual’s face.

3. Over-Reliance on Positive ID Evidence

Positive ID evidence, such as fingerprints, DNA, tool marks, etc. have proven to be accurate identification tools. But, unless you have the suspect’s name, it’s hard to make the connection and locate matching evidence. Obtaining their name, especially through the release of a facial composite, is always good practice.

4. Lack of Faith in Eyewitnesses

Wrongful convictions based upon faulty eyewitness testimony is never good. Better training can help foster an atmosphere that increases eyewitness accuracy through better retrieval methods.

5. High Personnel Turnover

Law enforcement is experiencing a high-turnover rate. Experienced investigators are reaching their retirement ceiling. Some investigators fail to brief incoming personnel about resources available to them. This includes forensic artists.

I think it’s time to re-visit the value of using facial composites during criminal investigations. It starts with educating detectives on how a well-constructed facial composite can actually compliment other pieces of evidence.

Those employed with a law enforcement or other government-tasked investigative agencies and those entering the forensic field are the perfect evangelists.

I also think it’s important that this resurgence include computer-savvy individuals with solid interviewing skills, using a software-driven solution with complementing tools and 3^rdparty software, armed with proper training. (This would also include updating traditional artists on new methods for creating facial composites using digital technology.)

Part of this paradigm shift would include rebranding the position of forensic artist to forensic facial imaging technician. This will help increase the ranks of those qualified to create facial composites and other related facial examination tasks, even if they lack artistic skills.

I became a forensic artist to help capture more crooks.

Limited artistic skills shouldn’t be a barrier to those who aspire to do the same. If you’re interested, I’ll teach you. All you have to do is sign up for our SketchCop® Academy courses and let the learning begin!