News 12 Brooklyn visited the sketch artist unit at NYPD headquarters to find out what goes into creating those drawings.

NYPD Detective Jason Harvey started his career as a regular patrol officer, but his skills and personality brought him to the artist unit 10 years ago. He says the first step in creating a sketch is interviewing the victims.

He says the unit will show the victim or witness pictures of faces to get a general starting point of what features the suspect has. Despite all of the technology available to law enforcement, including facial recognition software, the unit says at the end of the day it all comes down to a pad of paper and a stack of pencils.

A recent success story for the department was after the stabbing attack of two young children in an East New York elevator that left one of them dead. Witnesses sat down with Detective Harvey, resulting in a sketch that helped lead police to suspect Daniel St. Hubert.

Harvey says while arrests can be made based off of these sketches, they don't guarantee a conviction. He says his team's sketches are only as good as the witness' or victim's memory.