TUCSON, Ariz. — Solving crimes at the Tucson Police Department is getting a bit easier thanks to a couple of new sketch artists who are doing their part to get criminals off the streets. With the stroke of a pencil and a brush sketch artists Jessica Leafstone and Krysta Kittoe work closely with victims to help them identify suspects. They also make sure victims have time to process their experience before conducting their interview and sketch process.
"Its a unique skill set that Jessica and I have been able to cultivate," Kittoe said.
The duo replaced a veteran artist and have been going through specialized training and certifications while helping investigators for about about year. They also work as crime scene specialists for the department. It turns out Kittoe and Leafstone are the only sketch artists at working at TPD. They talk to victims to get detailed descriptions like eye, face and nose shape. They also use a formula and books with various features to produce the final product.
"We give victims back a little bit of power that was taken away from them," Leafstone said
So far the artists have about 10 cases between them and some of their sketches have led to the arrest of suspects who match their composites.
"One of the things we touched on is age progression and regression. In cases like this like Jessica was saying if it's a sex assault or god forbid its something where a family or friend was killed in front of you or a child taken anything like that. We have the resource available to help someone when there's no surveillance video available, DNA or fingerprints, its an extra tool to identify a suspect," Kittoe said.
It can take up to 4 hours to complete a sketch.
