Everything you think you know is wrong, Part XXXIII -- Police Sketches are Worthless

Police Sketches Rarely Look Like Suspects The media love sketches. Especially computer-generated composites handed out at press briefings. Never mind that those sketches barely resemble the perps the police are looking for. Ignore the fact DNA testing has proven the sketches wrong again and again. Forget the walking proof as one man after another is released from prison after being mistakenly arrested and convicted based on distorted descriptions from victims and eyewitnesses.

"Composite sketches have very limited value," said retired Chicago Police Detective Sgt. Paul Carroll from his home in Big Pine Key, Fla. "We use them a lot to put it on the street that we're trying to do something. It's good public relations. The sketches are often someone's imagination."

Link via Altercation.