The Met’s sole e-fit officer is leaving the force after a fifteen year career helping to catch some of the most dangerous criminals in London.
PC Tony Barnes joined the Met from Essex Police in 2006 and has worked as London’s single e-fit operator since 2013.
He says that despite CCTV, ever-improving forensics and new digital tools, there will ‘always’ be a place for the vital skill.
Those he helped arrest after e-fit appeals were issued include Derry McCann who was given a life sentence for a rape he committed in east London’s Victoria Park on his own wedding day.
PC Barnes said: “I like to tell people one of two things about me. Either that I’m the most published artist in the Evening Standard or that I’m the only police officer in London who’s paid to draw pictures all day long. Both are true I think, although Banksy gets his fair share of column space.
“Whatever I tell people, I know that I have been incredibly lucky to do something at work that I love doing. Not only can I use my natural creative talents but I get to meet very interesting people.
“I joined up as a PC but when I saw this opportunity, I knew it was right for me and that’s proved exactly right.
“Over the years I have carried out interviews in every London borough and interviewed at least two thousand people from a variety of backgrounds.
“They all had one thing in common though. They had either been the victim of, or witness to a crime. Some of them, very serious indeed.
“This is something that is often forgotten by the press. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t laughed at some of the e-fits I have seen over the years. I bet you have as well.
“The truth is that every e-fit that you see in the press or on TV is not the vision of the police officer or police staff member.
“It is what the witness has described to those officers. Sure the artistic skills of some of the composite artists may be lacking at times, but that image only appears for public consumption if the witness says there is a likeness to the suspect.
“I have pride in all the images that I have helped create over the years, even if some very old images look unrealistic by today’s standards.
“Of course not all e-fit images lead to an arrest but lots have, including the conviction of Derry McCann who committed a rape in Victoria Park on the same day that he later got married. He was sentenced to life in prison.
“People sometimes ask whether e-fits are still needed today, given the extent of CCTV and other technology.
“And while it’s of course true that these things have diminished the need for e-fits in some ways, there are always criminals who lurk in the shadows and manage to evade any cameras.
“That’s where we come in and why I think there will always be a place for what we do.”
Four new officers have now received their accredited e-fit training and are now being given extra tuition from PC Barnes – who says he is “off to the countryside in a floppy hat and smock to paint until the sun goes down.”