Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael W. Streed.
Michael, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
During my rookie year, I saw a story broadcast on ABC7 Eyewitness News. LAPD was looking for a suspect when a composite sketch suddenly flashed upon the screen. That’s the moment I realized how to combine my love of art with my passion for public service.
The next day I called LAPD and spoke to their famed-police sketch artist, Fernando G. Ponce. He was well-known for the many high-profile LA cases his sketches helped crack. Ponce told me that he had scheduled an upcoming week-long course teaching police sketch artistry. Ponce’s class lit a fire in me. His course helped start a long-term friendship that lasted several years. It was also the beginning of my decade’s long relationship with LAPD.
While I pursued further training, with the FBI and other notable police sketch artists across the country, I continued to visit Ponce. Over time I was trusted to fill in for him when he was away on vacation. During this same time period, I spent time training with the sketch artists at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Graphic Arts Unit.
During my police career, I continued to train while gaining valuable experience doing side work with the LAPD. When I retired from active police work at the rank of Sergeant; I incorporated SketchCop® Solutions and began my second career as a forensic facial imaging expert and consultant. Establishing a business allowed me to formally continue my work providing sketches for LAPD and several other law enforcement agencies across Southern California.
In 2011, I left Southern California to accept a position with the Baltimore Police Department as their first ever, full-time police sketch artist. I returned to Southern California in 2015 bringing the Baltimore Police Department along as a client. I continue to work with them remotely to create police sketches and in 2019, I began working under contract with LAPD again.
My work with LAPD has taken me to almost every part of Los Angeles where I’ve been lucky enough to meet many interesting people. Thanks to the internet, I’ve been able to expand my client base from Southern California to the East Coast. Internationally, we’ve expanded into South America, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and India with plans for expanding our SketchCop® brand to more countries.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Actually, it’s been surprisingly smooth – minus a couple of speed bumps along the way.
Early in business, I found my biggest challenge was letting go and contracting with the right people to take care of important administrative and IT functions so I could do the work.
I found it was difficult to focus on delivering quality products and services if I was trying to do everything. The support work I was trying to do was time-consuming and technical. I quickly found that it was best to let the experts take care of it. Once I did that my burden was suddenly lifted and everything’s been great moving forward.
Please tell us about SketchCop® Solutions.
SketchCop® Solutions is The Digital Difference in Facial Imaging & Identification. We are a forensic facial imaging consulting company that provides a unique menu of products, services and training to law enforcement, the academic community, select private investigators, museums, historical societies and the television/movie industry to name a few.
Our chief product is SketchCop® Facial Composite System Software. It helps law enforcement create facial composites in the absence of a police sketch artist. But, if our clients want a traditional hand-drawn police sketch then we’ll do that for them too.
In addition, we provide clients with 3-D digital sculpting of unidentified deceased persons, mostly homicide victims, 1-to-1 facial comparison & analysis, age progressions, historical images, props and anything else involving the human face that you can imagine.
We are most proud of our brand and the relationships we maintain with our clients. When established or prospective clients contact us, they can expect a prompt reply. SketchCop® Solutions proudly supports our high-quality products and services and we work hard to deliver excellent customer service.
What were you like growing up?
I was a middle child with an easy-going personality.
In school, I was the one always trying to get laughs. School was easy for me so I had lots of spare time in class where I daydreamed, talked a lot to others and sketched on any blank piece of paper I could find. I also stood up for those who couldn’t stand up for themselves against school bullies.
Growing up, I was interested in hero-types…my Father, astronauts, Batman and the Green Hornet. But I also had a good sense of humor and liked watching cartoons. As a matter of fact, I still enjoy old-school 2-D animation, which is quite the dichotomy because of all the 3-D artwork I do now.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.SketchCop.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesketchcop/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheSketchCop/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheSketchCop
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