Carrier Mills native Jesse Rouse found his calling as sketch artist almost by accident

HARRISBURG - Jesse Rouse's career as a sketch artist came about almost by accident.

In 1970, the Carrier Mills native joined the Elgin Police Department, a job he thoroughly enjoyed.

"Sometimes, you find something you enjoy doing, and you and enjoy the people you work with, and that's what police work was for me," Rouse told the Crime Lovers' Book Club at Harrisburg District Library Monday evening.

Normally, the book club meets and discusses a crime-writing author or two, but assistant librarian Ray Gorman, who runs the book club, wanted to give the club a treat: a firsthand account of what it's like to be a police sketch artist.

"I don't think too many people ever meet a police sketch artist," Gorman said.

Rouse told the group how, after a 7-Eleven convenience store had been robbed, and the clerk fatally shot, officers in his department had used a Smith and Wesson Identi-Kit to create a composite likeness of the suspect. An Identi-Kit contains an index of facial features with individual numerical coding, so the description may be transmitted to other police departments when no photo is available. In this instance, however, the witnesses told officers the image created by the Identi-Kit didn't quite look right.

A fellow officer, who knew Rouse drew cartoons as a hobby, suggested Rouse meet the witness and try to draw the suspect based on that person's recollection.

It worked.

The witness felt Rouse's image more accurately depicted the suspect, and the image was circulated. Before long, a suspect was caught.

After that initial success, Rouse went on to be utilized as a regular police sketch artist, learning some valuable investigative techniques along the way.

"One of the most important things I learned was that you didn't draw the person the way you wanted to. You drew it the way the witness described it," he said.

His interviewing techniques became more sophisticated as he learned that sometimes asking about other details, such as scents, or non-facial descriptions would bring memories back to a traumatized witness.

"If there was a certain smell they remembered, or a detail like whether the suspect had grease under his fingernails, it might trigger memories they knew but had forgotten," Rouse said.

Rouse told those gathered that he worked on more than 400 cases, and while many were solved thanks to his talents, he modestly referred to his drawing abilities as just one piece of the puzzle in a successful investigation.

While Monday night focused on Rouse's background in police sketches, many in Saline County and the surrounding area know him better as an artist. Rouse, who has been drawing since age 3, has created many works featuring portions of Saline County he remembered as a child.