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Police use ChatGPT to create images of suspects — but experts issue warning

Tech • December 15, 2025 • 0 Comment
US police officers are using ChatGPT to create ?sketches? of suspects
It seems AI is creeping into every corner of our daily lives — and now it may be reshaping police work as well. ChatGPT appears to be the latest recruit of the Goodyear Police Department, located on the outskirts of Phoenix, which is using the generative AI tool to create images of suspects in place of pen-and-paper police sketches. (Picture: Goodyear Police Dept)
US police officers are using ChatGPT to create ?sketches? of suspects
Goodyear PD wrote on its social media account when it debuted its first profile: ‘We are hopeful that these new techniques and AI technology will assist in solving more complex cases in the future, here in Arizona and around the country.’ And on the image, it states: ‘This AI-generated image is based on victim/witness statements and does not depict a real person.’ (Picture: Goodyear Police Dept)
Mandatory Credit: Photo by FBI/Zuma Wire/Shutterstock (9642507b) A suspect has been arrested in the case of the a serial killer who investigators believe raped 45 women and murdered 12 people in the Sacramento region 1970s and 1980s, known as the East Area Rapist or Golden State Killer. Sacramento County booked 73 year old Joseph James DeAngelo early Wednesday morning on two counts of murder, according to jail records. DeAngelo was wanted on a Ventura County arrest warrant and is being held without bail. The FBI had previously released these sketches of the suspect known as the East Area Rapist and Golden State Killer. 'Golden State Killer' suspect Joseph James DeAngelo arrested, Sacramento - 25 Apr 2018
However, the Washington Post reports that Goodyear Police Department officers say it’s ‘not an AI fabrication’ and that it was sourced in the same way as a typical composite sketch. This includes interviewing a witness and drawing a sketch based on that testimony, only this time it was fed into ChatGPT instead. Experts have warned that the practice could distort an already unreliable process for identifying suspects or be subject to scrutiny in court. Pictured: an example of a traditional police sketch, showing the image drawn of ‘Golden State Killer’ Joseph James DeAngelo. (Picture: FBI/Zuma Wire/Shutterstock)
US police officers are using ChatGPT to create ?sketches? of suspects
However, the Goodyear officer responsible for drawing the sketches, and who is now responsible for using AI to re-create them, is backing AI image generators as a powerful and attention-grabbing police tool. Mike Bonasera told the Washington Post: ‘We’re now in a day and age where if we post a pencil drawing, most people are not going to acknowledge it.’ (Picture: Goodyear Police Dept)
A police sketch of the suspect in the Son of Sam killings, and the official police headshot of the murderer, David Berkowitz.
He has sketched suspects for about five years, he said, which requires officers to undergo training on drawing facial features as well as interviewing witnesses and victims before they pass a certification exam. But earlier this year Officer Bonasera fed some of his old sketches into ChatGPT and was struck by lifelike images generated by the AI, which he said resembled the real suspects the sketches had been matched to. He then sought out approval from department leaders and the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office and, in April, used AI for the first time. Pictured: an example of a traditional police sketch, showing the image drawn of US serial killer David Berkowitz. (Picture: Bettmann Archive)
This pair of sketches provided by the San Francisco Police Department, Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2019, shows what a serial killer might look like now in a cold case involving at least five stabbing deaths of gay men in the mid-1970s in San Francisco. The killer was dubbed the "Doodler" after he told a person who later became a victim and survived that he was a cartoonist. It's one of several cases being re-examined after the capture last year of the "Golden State Killer" through DNA analysis. (San Francisco Police Department via AP)
Officer Bonasera believes that local residents, especially the younger crowd, are much more likely to interact with a hyper-realistic AI rendering. He said: ‘People are so visual, and that’s why this works.’ However, so far Goodyear seems to be the only police department in the US using AI to create composites of suspects. Pictured: an example of a traditional police sketch, showing what a serial killer might look like now in a San Francisco cold case. (Picture: AP)
8/1985- Los Angeles, CA: Color composite of police sketches of the LA Nightstalker Killer.
However, experts see an issue with using AI to create the images. When an image generator like ChatGPT spits out a picture of a person, it’s drawing on a huge database of photos of real people. So, whatever biases were present in the collection of photos used (for example if one race is predominant) this will show up in the final image. Speaking to the Washington Post, Dr Bryan Schwartz, an associate clinical professor of law, said: ‘That was something we saw early on with some of these generators. That they were really good at creating White faces and not as good at creating some of other races.’ Pictured: an example of a traditional police sketch, showing the image created for the Los Angeles ‘Night Stalker’. (Picture: Bettmann Archive)

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