How Helpful Are Police Sketches In Solving Crimes?

May 2024 ยท 2 minute read

Statistics on the effectiveness of police sketches tend to be, well, a bit sketchy. According to one study (via The Washington Post), people were asked whether they believed a sketch accurately reflected a corresponding photo of an individual. Only 30% of the respondents said they did. Just one problem: All of the sketches were meant to reflect the photo. And according to HowStuffWorks, less than 10% of police sketches produce a likeness to an actual suspect. Per the Houston Chronicle, the most optimistic statistic is that about 30% of sketches lead to an arrest.

That gap has little to do with the skill level of the artist and more to do with the witness. The sketch artist must be able to connect with the victim or witness at a time of high stress. They have to find a way to calm them down enough for an informative interview and then interpret the descriptions they can offer at the time.

Witness testimony is notoriously unreliable, so even if the witness is able to communicate effectively, did they remember the events and the suspects accurately? One study (published in Scientific American) found that 75% of wrongful convictions were based on witness accounts, per Science. According to the study, errors often creep in when witnesses who are eager to help believe they have seen details that they have not, which can lead to inaccurate witness accounts, including poor sketches.

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