Listen to the podcast 'Super-Recogniser' cop that never forgets a face - Mail+
/Click to 19 minutes to hear Mike Neville discuss the Super Recognisers.
How is it that only two polices forces in the whole of the UK use super recognisers?!
Super Recognisers needed for TV documentary
/A documentary is under consideration by a large broadcasting group. To show the diversity of Super Recognisers, those from ethnic minorities or disabled groups are sought. For further information please contact gemma.havard@superrecognisersinternational.com if you fit this criteria and have interesting Super Recognition skills to relate. This will be paid work.
German Super Recogniser case hits the news
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Police's super-eye discovers wanted thief
The Stuttgart police have unusual talents – they recognize the faces of people they have seen in search photos. To the displeasure of a fugitive offender.
The 34-year-old should not have passed the police headquarters at the Pragsattel in the light rail. However, he had no idea that a specialist of the police would board the U-15 train in the direction of Stammheim that late evening. One with a special eye for people. A so-called super-recogniser.
The fact that the Stuttgart police have about 70 talents, who can memorize faces particularly well and recognize them in any situation, has once again paid off. A 36-year-old traffic route investigator had been working with the traffic police for a long time when he was on a light rail in the north of Stuttgart shortly after 10 p.m. on Thursday. But then everything immediately returned to duty.
Talent search with help from London
A 34-year-old man, whose image was registered in the police search systems, was sitting on the train and had been put out for arrest. The person concerned, who had not begun his sentence for theft, immediately suspected evil when he noticed the eyes of another resting on him. Already at the next stop, at the level of Sieglestraße in Feuerbach, he tried to get up and away – and escape in the darkness of the industrial area of Feuerbach.
Why could he be recognized in the first place? In February 2018, the Stuttgart police had participated in a project in which officers were sought who have a special memory. The facial features can memorize themselves so well within seconds that they would still recognize the affected persons after years in a crowd. The Metropolitan Police in London has had a special unit of such super-re-recognizers for years – and together with a scientist from the University of Greenwich, the Stuttgarters were looking for talent in their own ranks. With success.
The fugitive has a knife with him
In September 2019, for example, a Stuttgart super-recogniser, also in the evening, had tracked down an EC card thief in Zuffenhausen, whom he had met by chance on the sidewalk. And the 34-year-old in the current case had no chance either. "The colleague is a very good runner," said police spokeswoman Monika Ackermann. He sprinted behind the fugitive, several hundred meters to the Magirusstraße. There the man gave up. "He then also released his knife," says spokeswoman Ackermann. The 34-year-old, who is known to police with offences across the Criminal Code, then began his sentence.
Association Presentation Day
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All those who have completed the recent courses and have been identified as Super Recognisers or Super Matchers by the University of Greenwich will receive their licenses at the next presentation day. This will be held in central London on 20th May, 1pm to 3pm with Lord Lingfield, the chairman awarding the certificates.
A number of Honorary Fellowships will be awarded to those who have contributed to research or operational use of Super Recognisers.
Invites will be sent out in due time.
If you are interested in becoming a Licentiate then please email gemma.havard@associationofsuperrecognisers.org
Super Recognisers expand to the Far East
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In a major step forward in the science of super recognition Futurum Consultancy and Training will be offering super recogniser selection and training in Hong Kong, Singapore, Macau and other parts of the Far East. This is being done in partnership with SRI and ASR.
Super-Recognisers show an advantage for other race face identification
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The latest research into the use of Super Recognisers by Dr Josh Davis and others entitled:
Super-Recognisers show an advantage for other race face identification
The summary:
The accurate identification of an unfamiliar individual from a face photo is a critical factor in several applied situations (e.g., border control). Despite this, matching faces to photographic ID is highly prone to error. In lieu of effective training measures, which could reduce face matching errors, the selection of “super-recognisers” (SRs) provides the most promising route to combat misidentification or fraud. However, to date, super-recognition has been defined and tested using almost exclusively “own race” face memory and matching tests. Here, across three studies, we test Caucasian participants' performance on own- and other-race face identification tasks (GFMT, MFMT, CFMT+, EFMT, CFMT-Chinese). Our findings show that compared to controls, high-performing typical recognisers (Studies 1 and 2) and SRs (Study 3) show superior performance on both the own- and other-race tests. These findings suggest that recruiting SRs in ethnically diverse applied settings could be advantageous.
Radio Five Live Podcast with SR Emma Mitchell. Listen here!
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Listen to Super Recognsier Emma Mitchell’s interview with Emma Bartlett on the Radio Five Live Show. Scroll along to 1 hr 36mins into the podcast.
SR Emma Mitchell to be interviewed on BBC Radio Five on Thursday 16th January
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Tune in to the radio show BBC Five Live this Thursday 16th Jan between 11:30 and 12pm to hear Super Recogniser Emma Mitchel being interviewed on the new book “The Other You” written by J.S Monroe.
Jon Monroe has written a thrilling new crime novel which features a female SR. Emma gave him an insight into the work we do and Jon has been keen to thank Super Recognisers International for the assistance. Please tune in!
‘Martyn’s law’ security checks at venues win government backing
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The Association will be pushing for the government to include the use of Super Recognisers to improve the security of concert, sporting and other venues in line with Martyn’s Law.