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East Ridge: Sketch artist aids manhunt
Nov 12, 2008 (Chattanooga Times/Free Press - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
East Ridge Detective J.C. Johnson picked up a pencil and, in the process, helped catch a robbery suspect.
By applying the skills he learned in an FBI school for police artists, Detective Johnson sketched a portrait of a potential suspect in a Nov. 5 robbery in the parking lot of the Epicurean restaurant at 4301 Ringgold Road. About 48 hours later, the suspect, along with another man, was arrested in Florida.
"I think it will be a tool we'll use in the future," East Ridge police spokesman Erik Hopkins said of sketches. "An ideal situation is the robbery we had."
Officer Hopkins said Detective Johnson was not available Tuesday for an interview.
East Ridge is the only police department in Hamilton County to employ someone who has completed the FBI course. When necessary, most departments use an artist from another agency -- sometimes at the state or federal level, officials said.
Sketch artists and their sketches aren't as prolific as TV crime shows would have people believe, said Sgt. Darrell Whitfield with the Chattanooga Police Department crime scene unit.
If the department received several requests weekly from victims for a sketch, administrators could look into sending an officer through the school, he said. As it is, requests trickle in, if at all, partially because of the presence of surveillance cameras that provide suspect descriptions.
"While we've seen our composite requests go down, people are in our office wanting videos looked at, videos enhanced," Sgt. Whitfield said. "It's just gone out of the roof."
When leads in cases are scarce, sketches can help generate information, he said. The department uses computer-generated programs, but those are limited in the number of ears, noses, eyes and face shapes they can produce, he said.
If a case warrants it, the department brings in an artist to take down descriptions from a witness or victim, Sgt. Whitfield said.
"With the hand-drawn artist, they can erase and move things," he said. "It's a whole lot easier. They can control every little tiny, minute detail of a drawing."
But sketches -- whether by hand or computer -- are limited because witnesses' memories are limited. No sketch ever will identically represent a suspect, Sgt. Whitfield said.
Sometimes sketches generate more false leads than real leads, a reason to use them infrequently and only when victims or detectives ask for them, Deputy Chief Mark Rawlston said.
"It has more of a reputation media-born or television show-born," he said. "It has more value on 'Law and Order' than it has in the real world."
The Hamilton County Sheriff's Department does not employ a deputy with sketch artist skills, but it does use artists from other agencies on occasion, spokeswoman Janice Atkinson said.
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Times/Free Press, Tenn. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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