Police Work Raised To An Art Officer’s Sketches Bring Criminals To Life, Justice

The artistry of a King County police detective helped authorities zero in on a suspect in a serial-rape case. He might still be at large had police relied on the traditional “Indenti-Kit” sketch.

The “Identi-Kit” system’s composite sketches - produced by using more than 600 overlapping transparencies of different features - can’t produce the entire range of facial features, says Nancy Patino, the agency’s first sketch artist.

Patino has produced detailed drawings of suspects in several unsolved cases involving abduction, rape, robbery and attempted murder.

But the arrest of accused serial rapist Brian Watts of Kenmore is her greatest coup. Patino’s two sketches, based on descriptions from victims, prompted a Seattle police officer’s decision to pull Watts over as he drove along Aurora Avenue. Watts, 27, is charged with rape and attempted murder.

The Identi-Kit system has serious limitations, she says. It doesn’t allow for three-dimensional features or account for differences in skin tone. A black person can be only one shade of black; a Caucasian can only be one shade of white.

“You end up with people who don’t look anything like” the real suspects, Patino said.

She produces an actual drawing based on the victim’s description of the suspect.

“The more traumatic (the crime), the more the victim will remember,” Patino said.

Such sketches are more likely to narrow down the number of suspects, she said. The old-style composite sketches are “almost worse than having nothing,” she said. “We get tips from a million people.”

Police in Renton and Auburn are trying another option to the Indenti-Kits - computerized systems.

“We’re hoping the picture created with a new computer program is more lifelike and more true to the suspect’s appearance,” said Commander Kevin Milosevich of the Renton Police Department detective division.

Renton police are considering several systems and will pick one next year - probably in the $5,000 range, he said. Newer programs allow officers to create faces, then expand or compress the face or features - “morphing” them - using digital imaging.

The Auburn Police Department is going with a computerized version of Identi-Kit, called Compu-Sketch. It provides more options and colors in what police hope will be a big improvement on the manual Identi-Kit system, said Lt. Jim Kelley.

Kent Police Officer Paul Petersen said his department tried a computerized system, but found it “too cumbersome,” and went back to the Identi-Kit and in-house talent. Two of Kent’s detectives have artistic skills and in recent years, working from witness descriptions, they have created a number of composites that were right on target and led to arrests, Petersen said.

Patino took a week-long training course in artistic sketching after growing increasingly frustrated with robot-like images of criminals. More police departments are sending officers for such training by consultants. At her course in Idaho, Patino studied with officers from Kitsap and Snohomish counties and the federal government.

She now divides her time between investigating sex crimes and producing sketches. Previously, the county had the option of contracting out for sketch artists.