system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How does a police sketch work? I feel like if I saw a suspect for a brief time no way would I be able to describe the shape of his eyes or what kind of eyebrows the guy has.
gpt
>How does a police sketch work? 

Not very well, as it turns out. In reality, police sketches are almost comically unreliable. Sketches are one of several cop tactics that continue to be used, despite the fact that there is no evidence that they work effectively, and actually quite a bit that they don't.

Things like lineups, and bite mark/blood splatter analysis are similarly bogus, but they just keep being used because it's "common knowledge" that they work. Except they don't. Even fingerprinting has a lot of problems that nobody is really addressing.