Police Receive Super Recogniser Awards from Lord Lingfield

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On 29th November 2021 in London, officers from the City of London, Metropolitan, Thames Valley and West Midlands Police forces received awards from the Right Honourable, The Lord Lingfield, the Chairman of the Association of Super Recognisers.    These human Super Recognisers have a fantastic (innate) memory for faces.   In policing, Super Recognisers have found suspects and victims in several high-profile cases, including the Salisbury Novichok poisonings, London Riots, the murder of Alice Gross and on the Hillsborough Enquiry.   They have also been used to linked up to 43 volume crimes together by images.   Super Recognisers are the ideal people to verify automated facial recognition identifications.

 

Four serving officers received the highest award from the Association, Honorary Fellowship.    DCI Steve Jones of Thames Valley and Inspector Luke Harley of the City Police were rewarded for their enthusiasm in organising Super Recogniser programmes in their respective forces.  PCSO Andy Pope of the West Midlands Police was recognised for making over two thousand identifications from CCTV images and PC Patrick O’Riordan of the Met Police was acknowledged for his work on the Grenfell Inquiry.   Using his skills, Pat created a timeline of the victims as they entered the block and also produced key evidence, that helped to convict seventeen fraudsters.  Super Recognisers are exceptional at noting who is in footage, as well as those who are not.

 

Seven Thames Valley Police super recognisers, including PC Lucy Fleming, the highest scorer on the University of Greenwich tests, received their Licentiate certificates.  In addition to being tested on their abilities relating to short and long term memory, image matching and spotting faces in a crowd, these officers completed a course covering operational Super Recogniser tactics, together with relevant legislation.  This included identification, data protection, Human Rights and surveillance laws and Codes of Practice.   Spotting suspicious behaviour was also covered.

 

Professor Josh Davis of Greenwich University, the academic expert in this field, Prof Davis noted that, "Police forces would benefit from establishing which of their officers have the super recogniser skill.  This would enable them to solve more crimes and make communities safer."

 

Lord Lingfield added, "It was wonderful to present certificates to the police officers, who had completed the Super Recogniser course.  I especially congratulate those awarded Honorary Fellowship.  They have done much to drive super recognition forward."

 

 

For further information contact mike.neville@superrecognisersinternational.com or 07415 634613

Super Recognizers (US Spelling!) Feature in the Washington Post

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The Washington Post has featured two recent articles relating to the research into Super Recognisers and their operational use. Two police officers members of the Association feature - PC Pat O’Riordan from the Metropolitan Police in London and Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) Andy Pope of the West Midlands Police, who is based in Birmingham. Pat will be familiar to course attendees and both will be receiving awards at the Association Presentation Day on 29th November.

See the articles here:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/facial-recognition-has-its-limits-just-ask-the-super-recognizers/2021/11/15/a37ec45c-45ed-11ec-beca-3cc7103bd814_story.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/super-recognizer-facial-memory/2021/10/29/4cf80caa-2159-11ec-b3d6-8cdebe60d3e2_story.html

Thames Valley Police Officers Praise Super Recogniser Course

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Another Super Recogniser Course was held at the Thames Valley Police Training Centre near Reading (5-8 Oct).  The feedback from the students was excellent:

 

Police Constable, Intelligence Section – “…this was a brilliant course…(with) input from people with such expertise and knowledge.”

 

Police Constable, Surveillance Team – “One of the most interesting courses I have done in the Police. Great to see TVP investing in the workforce, thinking outside the box and leading the way in this field.”

 

Police Constable, Response Team – “An engaging and professional week with passionate speakers sharing skills and knowledge gained over many decades; a great learning opportunity.”

 

Detective Constable, Priority Crime Team – “The course was very good, one of the most interesting I have taken in TVP. The visiting speakers were excellent. Well worth attending if you’re interested in ID evidence”.

 

Detective Sergeant, CID – “It was brilliant to learn that I have a natural aptitude for facial recognition…The course demonstrated those benefits and how the skills can be used to detect crime and bring more offenders to justice…It is clear that regardless of the improvements and advances in computer facial recognition programmes human intervention remains key to use this data evidentially.”

European Parliament Calls For Ban on Use of Automated Facial Recognition

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Members of the European Parliament are calling for a ban on the use of automated facial recognition systems, such as Clearview AI, which is used by numerous law enforcement agencies.

Read the full article here:

https://www.politico.eu/article/european-parliament-ban-facial-recognition-brussels/

This once again demonstrates the need for HUMAN Super Recognisers.

London Police Super Recogniser in The Times

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Great work from Met Police Super Recogniser, PC Steve Vella, who was praised at the Metropolitan Police “Officer of the Year” ceremony for identifying nearly 4000 suspects. Steve was first posted to the Super Recogniser Unit when Mike Neville was the founding head of the team. Steve’s efforts were noted in The Time newspaper. Well done to him.

SRI Courses - New Date & Feedback

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The next on-line SRI course will be held 30th November to 2nd December. Booked via the website:

Online Super Recogniser Course & Training - SRI (superrecognisersinternational.com)

The feedback from the September course was excellent - some quotes below from students from across the globe:

Petra from Sweden – “Thank you Mike to you and the other presenters for three Super Interesting days! I am very impressed by everyone's participation and happy to have been able to listen and learn a lot. This is probably the best "Zoom-education" I've experienced. No complications, great preparations and breaks running smoothly.”

Brian from the USA - " It was a pleasure to participate in a course that was conducted by such esteemed organizers and contributors as Mike Neville MCSFS, Professor Josh Davis and others. The in-depth level of testing and information provided, assures me of the accuracy of their findings in my results and confidence when entering the field with The SRI Licensure associated with my name. "

Kristin from England – “I think considering the course was originally designed to be done in person it translated very well over zoom. All sections/topics and guest speakers were enjoyable, very interesting and covered very thoroughly considering the time restrictions…I would highly recommend this course to other would-be super recognisers.”

Christian from Germany – “…it was a really exciting two and a half days.”

Katie from Nevada, USA – “I loved it, it was worth getting up at 2am each day!”