Faces Click With Police

Computer composite software that assists police detectives in identifying criminal suspects is emerging in Central Florida. Employing eyewitness descriptions and a computer program known as COPHOTOFIT + PHOTO II, officers can devise a composite.

When police in DeLand, Fla., made one recently, it resulted in the arrest of Brandon Scott Johnson in late April on armed-robbery charges after an officer recognized Johnson during one of his patrols.

Thousands of police agencies globally employ FACES composite software, as do the CIA, the FBI, and the U.S. military. FACES has a database of 4,400 facial features that be placed together like a puzzle to create a photo-quality image that can then be run through a program to connect it to criminal photos.

Other programs employ facial features that are taken in pieces from actual mugshots, says Sirchie Fingerprint Laboratories forensic software specialist Greg Given.

Sirchie manufactures the program utilized by the DeLand Police Department. These programs are getting more popular than previous methods of devising a suspect’s appearance, such as using a sketch artist or compiling a composite utilizing cellophane cutouts, or foils, of facial features that then have to be Xeroxed.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the Orlando Sentinel (FL) (04/27/06); Ailworth, Erin .