Goodyear PD uses AI for suspect sketches

Police using AI for suspect sketches

Goodyear Police recently released a flyer on social media about a man wanted for attempted kidnapping, but you'll notice the suspect's image isn't a photo or sketch. Instead, it was made using artificial intelligence. FOX 10's Lauren Clark reports.

GOODYEAR, Ariz. - One Valley police department is experimenting with artificial intelligence in hopes of solving more crimes.

What they're saying:

For public relations officer and forensic artist for Goodyear Police, Michael Bonasera, the eureka moment came when he was experiencing artificial intelligence.

"We were just playing around with the new update, and I’m like, ‘Hmmm… what would happen if I put one of my drawings in there? Let’s just see,'" he said.

It looked great. Nearly identical to the person he drew. Then, he tried more.

"Everytime – jaw-dropping," he said.

Goodyear Police release photo of kidnapping suspect

Goodyear Police are searching for a suspect in a kidnapping and released an AI-generated image of the man to the public.

That's when he put two and two together – this could be used for suspect sketches.

It starts with the victim describing a suspect to a forensic artist, and then a sketch is drawn. It's then put into an A.I. system for a more life-like image.

To show you how this can work, this is a sketch of me drawn by students at an Ironwood Elementary art class. Michael says he then works with his victim to get the details right. It's a process that once took hours, but now takes minutes.

"It’s now make him older, make him younger, make his eyes less blue, make his chin a little wider, and you just tell it, and it does it, until you turn it around, and they say–that’s the guy," said Bonasera.

For our photo, we were able to make this sketch look something like this. Compare that to this real photo the sketch is based on.

FOX 10's Lauren Clark.

"There’s a joke about putting forensic artists out of a job, and I am not – because I would be putting myself out of a job," Bonasera said. "What this is doing is you still have to have some artistic ability – the likeness, the similarities of that person."

Now, Goodyear Police is hoping this technology will help generate more leads to crack cases, and deliver justice to victims.

"As humans, we are naturally wanting to see the image, we want to – a drawing is one thing, but when we see a real photo, now we are drawn to it," said Bonasera.