The Most Wanted Portrait
Alcaldía de Soacha
Issue 59 | June 2021
Agency
Sancho BBDO
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officers Mario Lagos, Sergio León, Hugo Corredor, Giovanni Martínez Executive Creative Directors Andrés Luque, Daniel Calle, Jhonny Victoria Creative Directors Jerónimo Trejos, Diego Julián Rodríguez Copywriter Sebastián Suárez Gnecco Art Directors Camila Cabra, Rodrigo Hernández Motion Graphic Ricardo Solano
Production Team
Flare Bogotá
Other Credits
CEO Carlos Felipe Arango Business VP Natalia Pérez Planning VP Andrés Carvajal Head of Planning Juan Camilo Laverde Business Operation Manager María Clara Villegas Planner Paula Centeno
Date
April 2021
Background
Soacha is one of the largest municipalities in Colombia. But it also has one of the country’s largest crime rates. 133 criminal gangs, 164 robberies a day and 110 homicides in 2020. The problem was that although they do their best, Police artists took too long and were not always accurate enough for criminals to be recognised.
However, there was a technology with very high levels of customisation, which might allow the Police to create identikit portraits a lot faster.
Idea
Seeking to improve levels of security in the city, the Office of the Mayor of Soacha trained a portraitist to use video games technology as a working tool in order to create faster and more real portraits from witness descriptions. Working with the national Police, more than 100 portraits of criminals were created in just 20 days and distributed on the streets to invite Colombians to report miscreants.
Results
Where a hand-drawn portrait from a witness statement took up to 4 hours, now it only takes 40 minutes. Before, three portraits were created a day, today 12 portraits can be made.
With more portraits distributed on the streets, reports to the Police increased by 28%.
Our Thoughts
Moving from pencil to 3D modelling is reported to have significantly improved how victims of crime are able to remember and describe criminals.
Funny how what might be called deepfake in one context (see pages 96-97) and be regarded as a threat is here a verisimilitude that is helping safeguard the people of Bogotá. We live in a world of paradox.
This is one of those ideas that seems so obvious you wonder why no-one thought of it before. It also illustrates how the modern ad agency is now right at the centre of a Venn diagram where people, technology and business meet.