But then I read Jeanne Boylan's story, and my mind was opened completely up. This woman is not in any way a "police artist" as you traditionally think of them, you know, the kind that asks someone to basically point out features from a book of choices and then compiles them into a face for a wanted poster. Big deal, anyone can do that and almost every police agency, much like a file clerk or a parking attendant, has someone who does.
But what this woman does is nothing like that. My eyes were opened wider with every page. She uses no prompts or pictures, but instead, armed with an academic understanding in how memory works, she skillfully and slowly plumbs the complex area of recall that has been overwhelmed by the trauma a crime victim has experienced. She knows her job like no one else, and when she's finished working her magic, she has in her hands, not another generic police predictably wrong sketch that you see in any newspaper any day of the week, but instead, a precise and realistic image of the perpetrator. Her cases speak for themselves repeatedly throughout this book (many of them you will recognize) and they are all 100% "documentable" and you know what; you can't argue with history.
She also leaves the crime victim with a memory that is through her unusual technique of interviewing, is newly refreshed, undamaged and highly likely to aid the victim or witness in correctly identifying their attacker. She proves that it is not the eyewitness that is notoriously unreliable as the press stories would have you believe, but instead it's the leading techniques used to interview them by investigators and artists that badly damage eyewitness memories. In light of all the people now being released from prison through DNA and who were originally wrongly identified by victims, this revelation is huge and why we want to do a documentary on Ms. Boylan's work. Some of the mistakes made by police have even landed innocent people on death row.
She's a true frontrunner in a very important area that in the past, due to it's history of inaccuracy and widely known lack of academic training, has gotten no respect inside or outside the police community.
I know now why my order from the network execs is "Get this woman!" We want to be the first to do a full length feature on her discoveries and also to shine a very bright light on the U.S. police agencies that are so slow to progress in this arena. When this information is available and they don't utilize it, they need to be made accountable and I'm the right producer to take this issue to task. What I learned in this book just makes plain sense, period.
Now if I could just track down Ms. Boylan. She's off on more casework and last I was told by her office assistant, she was working on some high profile case in Australia or New Zealand, but, good things are worth waiting for. I'm not giving up.
As a book, even if you're reading it just for enjoyment, PORTRAITS OF GUILT is actually a great read, not textbook like at all, thankfully, but full of real life stories that deliver varied and important lessons. The writing is excellent, its compelling, emotional and brutally honest, will hold your attention throughout and on top of that, you will learn a lot. I give it a full five star rating.
I was impressed, so stopped by a bookstore in route home and read her book over the last two days. In person, she was one of the most interesting people we've ever interviewed in 19 years of "celebrity interviews." And in this book, she shows herself to be as true to her mission as I perceived. Her work and her efforts are all for others and at the cost of her own privacy, marriage, and any personal goals she could have in life. She could be rich, she could be a star, with her beauty and personality, she could be living a life of pure luxury. Instead she is out fighting an unsavory battle against crime in a way that no one else dares to take on and suffering some pretty steep consequences as a result.
I'm in admiration, in appreciation and like the firefighters and police in NYC who gave their own lives to help others, in her way, she's given her whole life over to helping others too. I applaud her obvious courage and her rare integrity. The book is very well written, highly informative and is as pure and honest as this woman is in person. I highly recommend it.