Thames Valley Police – More Super Recognisers Trained to Fight Crime

The Thames Valley Police (TVP) Super Recogniser Cadre has recently increased its capacity following another successful course delivered by retired Met DCI Mike Neville, the CEO of Super Recognisers International Ltd.   This a law enforcement course, with focus on the producing admissible evidence from Super Recognisers.

Police Officers and Staff completed a number of online pre-course tests to determine selection for the four-day course at TVP Police Training Centre, Sulhamstead, Berkshire – a beautiful venue.  The course included inputs on suspicious behaviour training, describing facial features, legal requirements and statement writing as well as the Super Recogniser testing provided by the University of Greenwich.

Candidates were tested on the final day of the course with a practical exercise in Reading town centre, whereby a number of ‘subjects’ were planted into a crowded shopping area and had to be picked out by the students. All of the subjects were identified, despite students only being provided with very dated photographs (some over thirty years old). An exceptional effort by the students!

Feedback from the course has been extremely positive, with comments including:
“The presentation was extremely interesting to understand the capabilities of SR and how it can be used to bring offenders to justice and help victims too.”

“Street Exercise – very interesting, thoroughly enjoyed it and one of my highlights.”

“Mike and his colleagues and the SR course was really interesting, enjoyed it immensely looking forward to see what we get deployed too!”

Detective Chief Inspector Steve Jones, of Specialist Operations noted that, “The TVP Super Recogniser Cadre are already being used to assist live investigations, and have recently deployed in support of Project Vigilant – Preventing Sexual Violence in the Night Time Economy. With the increased capacity, and a further course planned for later this year, the team are going from strength to strength!”

A bespoke course can be organised for your law enforcement agency.   For further details, email: mike.neville@superrecognisersinternational.com

Partnership with National Forensic Science University of India

India is unique, as the only nation with a university dedicated to Forensic Science. Super Recognisers International Ltd has entered into an exclusive agreement with the university to offer Super Recogniser selection and training in India. Those who pass the University of Greenwich tests and the legal examination, will receive certificates from the Association.

The driving force at the university is Dr. Surbhi Mathur, Forensic Multimedia expert and Senior Assistant Professor, NFSU. Dr Mathur noted that “With a vision to identify such people an exclusive MOU was signed between National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU) Forensic Sciences University and Super Recognizers International, UK on 7th of July 2021. With the MOU in effect, the country will witness a one-of-a-kind course to identify and train individuals with innate cognitive abilities to be super recognisers”.

National Forensic Sciences University (NFSU), an institute of national importance remains to be the pioneer throughout the world in the field of forensics. It is known to be a catalyst to refine the existing investigating techniques, and leads in providing training and assisting various criminal investigations in the country.

The Association is pleased that the skill of Super Recognition continues to spread across the globe.

US Super Recognizers Wanted For New Game Show

“You Bet Your Life” with Jay Leno, is a new comedy game show coming to Fox TV this fall.   The producers have recently become interested in reaching out to people with specifically interesting jobs to invite to apply to be contestants on the show. One of the jobs they mentioned was finding someone who is a super recognizer

Chosen contestants will compete to win cash and prizes by answering trivia questions. Filming will take place in Los Angeles between July and October, but contestants will only be needed for approximately 24-48 hours.

If you are a US Super Recognizer and wish to be involved, contact the Association or Mike Neville at mike.neville@superrecognisersinternational.com

Improvements to Glasgow Face Matching Test

In the attached article, Dr David White, from the University of New South Wales, describes how he has improved this much used test.

Abstract from the paper:

We present an expanded version of a widely used measure of unfamiliar face matching ability, the Glasgow Face Matching Test (GFMT). The GFMT2 is created using the same source database as the original test but makes five key improvements. First, the test items include variation in head angle, pose, expression and subject-to-camera distance, making the new test more difficult and more representative of challenges in everyday face identification tasks. Second, short and long versions of the test each contain two forms that are calibrated to be of equal difficulty, allowing repeat tests to be performed to examine effects of training interventions. Third, the short-form tests contain no repeating face identities, thereby removing any confounding effects of familiarity that may have been present in the original test. Fourth, separate short versions are created to target exceptionally high performing or exceptionally low performing individuals using established psychometric principles. Fifth, all tests are implemented in an executable program, allowing them to be administered automatically. All tests are available free for scientific use via www.gfmt2.org.

GFMT2: A psychometric measure of face matching ability (springer.com)

Police Use of Facial Recognition Deemed Unlawful in Canada

The Canadian federal police force broke the law when it used controversial facial recognition software, the country's Office of the Privacy Commissioner's (OPC) found in a report released on Thursday. This related to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and their use of Clearview AI. See the full report on the link below. This once again emphasises the need for HUMAN super recognisers to be selected and used by law enforcement agencies across the world.

Canada police broke law with facial recognition software, regulator finds (msn.com)

Super Recogniser Brings Killer to Justice→

A Super Recogniser from the English city of Bradford helped to bring a child killer and rapist to justice in Pakistan.

Read the Simone Malik’s assistance to the police at this link:

'Super recogniser': Bradford artist - who has an above-average ability to remember faces - uses her special skill to fight crime | Bradford Telegraph and Argus (thetelegraphandargus.co.uk)

Partnership with Artificial Intelligence Company - IREX

The Surveillance Camera Commissioner’s Code of Practice in UK demands that there must be “human intervention” if computerised facial recognition software or artificial intelligence are used to identify suspects for crime. The Association have long held the view that human Super Recognisers are the RIGHT people to perform that role and check identifications from machines.

IREX are a global company offering video analytics to Smart Cities and they are committed to ensuring ethical use of their systems. IREX will now offer Super Recognisers International selection and training to those purchasing their products. Daniel Eborall, their Global Business Development Director stated,

“We see a huge potential in a strategic collaboration with Super Recognisers International that could lead to further ethical standards in facial recognition practices for end users. IREX is determined to be an industry leader for ethical standards and best practices for AI surveillance and believe our partnership will help end-users learn and adhere to those standards.”

This is a major step forward for Super Recognisers and the use of artificial intelligence to fight crime. See the IREX website for more on this company:

IREX Smart Cities | Public Safety | Video Analytics | AI

Thames Valley Police - Super Recogniser Expansion

Thames Valley Police are at the forefront of the selection and use of Super Recognisers in the UK. The force covers the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. The force intends to run four courses over the next two years to enhance their use of Super Recognisers to target all types of crime. The Association praises their commitment to innovation.

On-line Course May 2021 - A Great Success!

The Super Recogniser on-line course held between 25th and 27th May proved to be a great success with students from across the world.  The nations represented included the UK, US, Canada, Brazil, France, Germany, Hungary and Lithuania.  The feedback noted the excellent presentations by Prof. Josh Davis, Peter Jupp (behavioural detection), Dale Nufer (evidential description of faces), Kelly Hearsey (Chief Operating Officer) and Pat O’Riordan (police super recogniser).  The fast-moving final exercise was also enjoyed by the course – a high pressure matching operation with a realistic scenario based on an actual police investigation.

Abison, an eye (very apt for a Super Recogniser!)  from England noted, “It’s great to be part of the super recognisers. It is very apparent that Mike and the University of Greenwich have done a thorough and amazing job to build up the organisation. The work that they are doing is critical to security of the nation and I look forward to playing my part.”

Paola from Germany said, "I want to thank Mike Neville for his great engagement during the course. Each of the lecturers was very approachable. All of the contents were captivating and, due to many images and videos shown, very lively. The subject "Super-Recognisers" was illuminated from all sides. I had an intense time and feel very enriched."

The next on-line courses will be held between 7th to 9th September and 30th November to 2nd December.   More details on the Courses page.

Interactive Use of Images Improve Super Recogniser Performance

This article shows that the ability to view images from different angles improves identification. This is especially applicable to Super Recognisers.

Police Professional | Interactive images could cut errors in facial recognition, study suggests

This was taken from this academic article:

Smith, H. M. J., Andrews, S., Baguley, T., Colloff, M. F., Davis, J. P., White, D., Rockey, J. C., & Flowe, H. D. (2021). Performance of typical and superior face recognisers on a novel interactive face matching procedure. British Journal of Psychology, DOI: 10.1111/bjop.12499 (https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bjop.12499)

The conclusion from the academic paper:

In this paper, we tested typical and superior recognizers using a novel interactive face matching procedure. In contrast to standard (i.e., static frontal) one-to-one face matching tasks, the procedure provides fluid orientation information, and the opportunity to interact with the comparison facial image by manoeuvring it into different orientations. This easy-to-implement procedure has a range of applied benefits: It optimizes the performance of both typical and superior recognizers, and has the potential to highlight both similarities and differences between facial images. The results support the hypothesis that typical and superior face recognizers process faces in qualitatively similar ways: Reliance on pictorial encoding when viewing static images helps to explain the benefit of the interactive procedure.