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October 23, 2018

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Long-serving police sketch artist dies

By Li Qian | 00:01 UTC+8 October 23, 2018 | Print Edition

ZHANG Xin, the nation’s leading police sketch artist, died from overwork on Saturday, the Shanghai railway police have reported.

Zhang felt unwell after working overtime and died following emergency treatment at 7pm on October 20, at the age of 58.

For 30 years, Zhang dealt with more than 11,000 cases, and helped to solve more than 1,000 through sketches of suspects.

He joined the army and went to Beijing in 1976 at the age of 16.

In the army, he learnt traditional Chinese painting. He retired from the army in 1982 and returned to Shanghai to work as a railway police official.

His talent for sketching became known in 1986.

In the summer 1986, police received a report of the theft of a television in the old Shanghai North Railway Station. When a witness described the appearance of the suspect, Zhang didn’t write it down as other police did, he created a sketch.

“When I finished the sketch, a police station chief said he recognized him,” Zhang told local media. “He led a squad to raid the man’s home that afternoon. The television was on his bike in the yard.”

Zhang said the secret to capturing suspects through sketches is not only artistic ability but also effective communication with witnesses.

“By talking to the witness, I try to understand some subtle information that is hard to say,” he said.

In January 1995, an explosion killed one and injured 98 others in a department store in Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province. The Ministry of Public Security asked Zhang to help.

Based on clues given by 50 witnesses, Zhang sketched the faces of the two suspects.

A local stone material factory owner recognized one and police were able to track the suspects down.

In early 2000s, police began to use monitoring videos. Zhang also kept pace with the digital era. He learnt how to restore a face from blurred videos.

Also, he developed a facial assembly software system that operates like a jigsaw of parts.

Metro


 

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