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Show WORKSHOP. Police Officer Craig Holyoak (left) and Police Chief Bolton (right)explain the new kit of clear acetate sheets which will help the Cedar City Police Department make composite drawings of suspects in criminal investigations. in-vestigations. The two police officials attended a two day workshop in Irvine, Calif, last week to learn how to use the kit. Composite Drawings aid Criminal Investigations Cedar City Police Chief Douglas Bolton and Officer Craig Holyoak recently completed two days of instruction in-struction in Irvine, California, on the use of composite drawings of suspects in criminal investigations. The instruction, says Chief Bolton, has filled a current need in Southern Utah law enforcement for officers to be able to obtain from witmesses to crimes a more complete description of suspects. Using the techniques learned in California, Chief Bolton and Officer Holyoak will be able to meet with witnesses and produce a composite sketch of the suspect that can be distributed to other police ' officers and to the public. The drawings are made by selecting appropriate facial features from over 400 possible choices of hair styles, noses, eyes, chin lines and other face parts. Each component is preprinted pre-printed on clear acetate sheets and contained in a kit. As the witness describes the suspect, a composite drawing is make by stacking the acetate foils on top of each other to complete the suspect's general appearance. While the method does not give a photographic likeness of the suspect, it will reproduce the main characteristics charac-teristics of a suspect as they are remembered by the witness. This will enable police officers to disregard 'persons that do not share the similarities of the composite while checking out others that have an appearance similar to the drawing. "Instead of officers having only a written description of a suspect," says Chief Bolton, "they can see what the person is supposed to really look like." "This increases the likelihood of finding a wanted person because it removes personal interpretation from the situation. Everyone, including police officers, have their own idea of what is a large nose, long hair, or beady eyes. Having a composite drawing," concluded the chief, "will allow the officer to see the witness idea of a suspect's appearance instead in-stead of making his own interpretations in-terpretations of what he has read about the suspect." Chief Bolton also stated that the Cedar City Police Department is making this service available to all law enforcement agencies in Southern Utah to assist in their investigations. |