Programs like Ultimate Flash Face and IQ Biometrix’s Faces put the power in the victim’s hands.

IQB’s face sketching software allows the user to create and re-create billions of human faces. Facial features selected from a database are automatically blended together to produce a photo quality composite facial image. The technology helps law enforcement agencies identify, track and apprehend suspects.

“We have a database of 45,000 images of eyes, noses, ears, that we’ve had drawn so when you build a sketch, you’re building a sketch just like a sketch artist would,” Greg Micek, president of IQ Biometrix, told KSAT 12 in Houston.

Lois Gibson has been a sketch artist for 32 years, and while she thinks professional sketch artists are still very much necessary, she also said the computer programs are fantastic resources for victims.

Working for Houston police, Gibson has helped solve more than 1,200 crimes, putting faces to the monsters that crime victims describe to her.

“When the face is fresh, just do a little mock up from a free computer program,” Gibson told KSAT 12. “I think that’s actually an excellent idea.”