Super Recognisers & The Grenfell Tower Fraudster→

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Mike Neville, the CEO of the Association features on this episode of “Faking It: Tears of a Conman”, which tells the story of Anh Nhu Nguyen, who claimed that he had lost his home and his family as a result of the Grenfell Fire disaster, which occurred in London in 2017. His story was a fiction and Nguyen, a serial fraudster, was convicted of obtaining £12000 by the deception and jailed for 21 months. Super Recogniser skills played an integral part in convicting seventeen fraudsters for similar offences.

https://www.dplay.co.uk/show/faking-it-tears-of-a-crime/video/the-grenfell-conman/EHD_318718B

Super Recogniser Success in Stuttgart!→

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A suspect involved in rioting in Stuttgart was identified by a German Police Super Recogniser. The article below has been translated into English. Congratulations to the Stuttgart Police on embracing this new law enforcement tactic!

More arrest warrants after the night of the riots

Stuttgart - And again the handcuffs click: Three other alleged participants in the Stuttgart Randalenacht on June 21 have been sent into custody by a judge. They are three 18-year-olds. The Eckensee Investigation Group has thus identified more than 80 suspects. In just over half of the cases, the Public Prosecutor's Office has obtained an arrest warrant, a good part of which has since been suspended.

One was recognised by a so-called Super Recogniser on Thursday night. The officer with a trained memory saw the 18-year-old, who is known to the police and who was already being searched, by chance at the main station. The official was there privately. The homeless man is said to have smashed a shop window and threw a bottle at it.

Many suspects - but one is still missing

On 3 September, another 18-year-old went online. He, too, is said to have been involved in the riots and looting. He was wanted on a warrant for allegedly damaging shop windows and throwing a bottle. A judge sent him into custody. On 4 September, police arrested an 18-year-old from the district of Biberach. He is accused of looting goods and damaging a patrol car in a shop. He, too, is now behind bars.

Investigations are continuing against those involved in the looting. However, one suspect is still missing from the list: the attacker who attacked a police officer with a kickboxer kick is still unknown.

Super Recognisers & Masked Suspects→

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We live in a world where people can now go into banks and businesses wearing a mask - unthinkable a few months ago. Criminals can take advantage of the current virus crisis and use masks, not to control Covid 19, but to conceal their identity. Two reports show how human Super Recognisers can assist law enforcement agencies to identify those who commit crime with most of their face concealed.

Research by Prof Josh Davis of Greenwich University demonstrated that masked suspects can be identified by human Super Recognisers, see:

https://ef7ac492-0255-46b7-9653-75e8356be6c1.filesusr.com/ugd/9bb3fa_ea526c72142d4c5f8523167ec306cf11.pdf?index=true

Meanwhile, the US National Institute for Standards & Technology (NIST) notes that “Algorithms created before the pandemic generally perform less accurately with digitally masked faces.” People, in the form of Super Recognisers, are the solution.

https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2020/07/nist-launches-studies-masks-effect-face-recognition-software

Super Recogniser Interviewed on Australian Television→

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See Kelly Hearsey, the COO of Super Recognisers International Ltd, being interviewed by the hosts of the breakfast TV show on Channel 10 in Australia. Kelly describes how she discovered her skills and became an operational Super Recogniser, working with the police, the security industry and the media to fight crime and identify persons of interest. The TV hosts also test their facial recognition abilities. You too could take this path, if you are a Super Recogniser!

US Podcast on Super Recognizers - Part 2→

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Dr David Robertson and Prof Josh Davis speak about the benefits of human Super Recognisers (or Recognizers if you are in the USA!) and how they can make automated facial recognition software more effective AND more ethical, in accordance with civil liberties. As Prof Davis states, using Super Recognisers is just “good, old-fashioned policing” - the public expect police officers to identify criminals.

https://www.superrecognisers.com/post/videocasts-with-us-department-of-homeland-defense-security-information-analysis-center

Association Presentation Day - Thursday 4th February 2021

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The presentation day for Licentiates and Honorary Fellowships will be held on the afternoon of 4th February at 86 St James’s Street in central London. It is hoped that Covid 19 restrictions will allow th

September 04, 2020e event to occur. All those receiving awards from Lord Lingfield will be notified in due course.

Swiss Police use Super Recognisers→

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The Zurich Polizei (City and Canton Police Forces) are the latest law enforcement agencies to use the skills of Super Recognisers. A police investigator, Lorenz Wyss, has written a thesis on the benefits of Super Recognisers and is convinced that they can assist to solve crime.

In the article (in German), it notes that:

In the Winterthur City Police, Lorenz Wyss used to compare pictures of pickpockets every day.
                At an international conference on pickpocketing, he first heard of super-recognizers: people with the ability to easily memorize and recognize faces. With this talent, it has been proven that higher hit rates can be achieved in identifications. To implement this idea in the canton of Zurich, he pursued in his diploma thesis in the advanced technical examination.
 He was enthusiastic about this and was awarded the VSPB innovation prize.

The Association wish the Swiss Police well in their use of this vital crime fighting tool. Another nation is added to the list of those using Super Recognisers to make their cities safer.

https://www.vspb.org/content/docs/003%20Aktuell/1%20Verbandszeitung%20police/Ausgabe%20072020/Höhere%20Trefferquote%20dank%20Super-Recognizern.pdf

Dr Josh Davis Promoted to Professor

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The Association is very pleased to announce that Josh Davis has been promoted to Professor of Psychology. For many years Josh has been at the forefront of the research into Super Recognisers, beginning with the Metropolitan Police in 2011. As a result of his efforts, he was the first academic to receive Honorary Fellowship of the Association from Lord Lingfield. We wish Professor Davis every success in his future work.

US Podcast on Super Recognizers→

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Accurate identity judgments are critical in ensuring that suspects can be apprehended by law enforcement and national security agencies and that fraud attacks do not go undetected at border control points. Research has shown that typical human observers are poor at facial recognition in these contexts. However, there is now a decade’s worth of science which shows that some individuals – known as super recognizers – excel at such tasks.

This video podcast is part one of a two-part series on the topic of super recognizers and facial recognition. In this podcast, Dirk Plante, Deputy Director of HDIAC, interviews two subject matter experts, Dr. Josh Davis and Dr. David Robinson, on facial recognition, discussing the definition of super recognizer and what makes a person more or less likely to possess the ability to be a super recognizer. This podcast also discusses methods that organizations can use to identify if they have personnel who are super recognizers. The next step of effectively utilizing this talent is also outlined.

https://www.hdiac.org/podcast/super-recognizers-part-1-of-2/

Read the HDIAC Journal article on the same topic and authored by the interviewees here: https://www.hdiac.org/journal-article/capitalizing-on-the-super-recognition-advantage-a-powerful-but-underutilized-tool-for-policing-and-national-security-agencies/