Pangasinan police uses digital sketch to identify suspects

• Source:https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1076460
• Saturday, August 3, 2019

By Hilda Austria (PNA)

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan -- The Pangasinan Police Provincial Office (PPPO) has launched the use of digital facial composite sketch as an aid in determining the facial feature of a suspect involved in crime.

Col. Redrico Maranan, acting provincial director of PPPO, said the use of the system will help improve crime solution efficiency in the province.

“This is faster in identifying the facial feature of suspect in a crime compared to the pencil and paper sketch as this will only take five to 10 minutes whereas the latter takes one to two hours,” he said in a conference Tuesday.

Maranan noted that the facial composite sketch is also more accurate since the database has thousand sets of eyebrows, eye color or shapes, among others.

“It is about 90-100 percent accurate depending on the vivid memory of the witnesses. It employs computer algorithms to pick out details about a person’s face from a photo or video to form a template,” he said.

“Like in other countries, police use facial composite sketch to identify unknown suspects by comparing their photos to images stored in databases and used mainly to reconstruct the suspect’s face in hope of identifying them,” he added.

Through the new digital facial composite sketch, Maranan said suspects can be immediately identified, and it can assist investigators in checking leads and additional evidence against a suspect.

He, however, clarified that other elements in solving a crime should also be considered, such as the complainant, witness and evidence, as the digital facial composite sketch is just an aid.

“This system will soon be implemented in the 48 police stations in the province. We will provide computers with higher megapixels and investigators will be trained on how to use the system. We target to finish all this in a month,” he added.