The Bridgewater Police Department offers composite drawing
services for all
law enforcement agencies in central New Jersey. Agencies seeking composite
drawing services can contact Detective Larry Boody at 908 722-4111 x 4114.
If he is not immediately available, feel free to call the duty watch
commander via Dispatch at 908 722-4111 x 0.
Availability: Composite drawing services are usually available
within 48
hours but immediate attention can be arranged for in more serious cases.
Although we prefer to do composite drawings at our headquarters, we will
respond to alternate locations if the circumstances necessitate it.
Composite drawings have been completed in police stations, hospitals, and in
private homes. The most important considerations are that the location be
relatively free of distractions and are comfortable for the victim/witness.
Process: The composite drawing process normally takes about two
hours of
both interviewing and actual drawing. It is important the victim/witness be
made aware of this so the session is not rushed. The finished drawing will
be turned over to the investigating agency upon completion. Composite
drawings can also include profile views.
To minimize outside influences, witness interviews are conducted
one on one.
The witness first provides a verbal description of the suspect in his or her
own words. At that point, the witness is shown reference photos from the
FBI Facial Identification Catalog and from other sources. The witness then
selects those photos which remind him or her of the suspect. As the name
implies, the drawing is a composite of facial features selected and
sometimes modified from reference photos.
A composite drawing is an artistic representation of a person's
memory and
there are a number of factors which influence how well a witness will
remember the suspect. The ability of a witness to accurately recall the
suspect is generally influenced by their level of participation in the
incident, the length of time their observations are made, and the conditions
in which the observations were made. Because memory degrades over time,
composite drawings should be accomplished as soon as possible.
General inquiries from law enforcement agencies are always welcome.
Detective Larry Boody has been a composite artist since 2000.
In May 2000,
he attended the one week Composite Drawing Workshop at the Scottsdale
Artist's School in Arizona and in February 2001, he attended the three week
Forensic Facial Imaging school at the FBI Academy in Quantico, VA.
Training
at the FBI Academy included Composite Imagery and 2D & 3D Post-Mortem facial
reconstruction.
