“I’m in high school and want to be a Forensic Artist. What should I do?”

At this point…stay out of trouble. Seriously, at this part of your life, the most important thing you can do, more important than any art or science class you can take, is to stay out of trouble. And by that I mean, drugs, alcohol, anything that could lead to a police record.

The fact is that most forensic artists work in Law Enforcement (LE); most do composite sketches or facial reconstructions as part of their work in an agency. They could be a detective, a patrol officer, crime scene tech, whatever. But they have a steady, full-time job in LE, and do the forensic art in addition to that. And getting a job in LE when you have a police record, or have shown a pattern of bad behavior is going to make things tougher on you. Maybe not impossible, but still, tougher than it needs to be.

If you’re a good kid and intend on staying that way, then consider what type of full-time job you would want to have in LE, and work towards that. Of course, take some art classes, and work on your drawing skills too. But being a part of LE is the most necessary step to getting work as a forensic artist. Get your foot in the door there, and then the opportunities to being a forensic artist can open up. You’ll still have to work at that part though, by getting forensic art training, talking to your supervisors and letting them know how sending you out on a composite sketch could help a case. But you’ll be where the work is.

So how do you go about gettting a job in LE? I just found a very helpful website called Discover Policing that can probably give you all the information you will need.