(NewsNation) — After a shooting in late November, an Arizona police department released what looked like a mug shot of the suspect. In lieu of an actual photo — or a traditional police sketch — the image was created using artificial intelligence.

Officers in Goodyear, a suburb of Phoenix, released the AI-generated image on their Facebook page with a warning: “This AI-generated image is based on victim/witness statements and does not depict a real person.”

Officer Mike Bonasera, the department’s forensic artist, told NewsNation the process for creating the sketch “is still the same.”

“As a forensic artist, you do your interview, you do your hand drawing, and then from there, as an extra step, we are now entering it into an AI program,” Bonasera said.

Goodyear police spokesperson Sgt. Mayra Reeson told the Phoenix New Times that Bonasera has twice used an AI tool to create realistic sketches. The program was previously used after an attempted kidnapping in April.

Bonasera clarified that he doesn’t believe the technology will eventually render his job useless, but instead sees it as an “extra tool” to aid forensic artists.

“This is definitely one of the positives of AI,” Bonasera added.

Experts, however, have warned of dangers and say the practice could distort an already unreliable process for identifying suspects — and face blowback in court.

Goodyear’s AI-generated suspect images have not led to arrests, and Reeson says those cases are still open.