Another German Super Recogniser Unit - Berlin

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Super Recognizer: Berliner Polizei sucht perfekte Gesichtserkenner - Berliner Morgenpost

The Berlin newspaper (The Morning Post) reported that police in the German capital are looking for further Super Recognisers. The report is translated below. Further evidence of the spread of this policing tactic across the world.

Police Seek Perfect Face Recognisers

 

The Berlin police are still looking for people who have perfect facial recognition skills, so-called super recognizers.

 

Berlin. You can recognize almost anyone - whether it's on a blurry video, years ago, masked, aging, or otherwise changed. According to scientific estimates, between one and two percent of all people have the ability to memorize faces better than average and to recall what they have remembered at will. Last but not least, the so-called "super recognizers" are of great benefit to investigative authorities - including the Berlin police.

 

Since last summer, the authority has been trying to identify super recognizers in its own ranks. However, the result of a corresponding test run is still a long time coming. Originally, this should already be available in September 2021. "The differentiated scientific analysis of the test data is not yet complete," said a police spokesman on request.
 
However, the officials also seem to be rather reserved. Because of the approximately 18,500 law enforcement officers who were asked to take part in a specially created test procedure in June, only 1,400 took part. With one to two percent, however, only between 185 and 370 enforcement officers should have the ability.

New Super Recogniser Unit in Offenburg, Germany

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The police in Offenburg, in the south west of Germany near the border with France, are the latest law enforcement agency to identify and utilise officers with the Super Recogniser skill. Out of a work force of over 1500 staff, 35 Super Recognisers were found after extensive testing by Professor Josh Davis, an Honorary Fellow of the Association.

The article below notes that “On 18 February 2022, Police Vice President Jürgen Rieger and Criminal Director Hans-Martin Berl were able to present the certificates to the 35 employees from the entire Offenburg police headquarters in two small ceremonies. "We hope that their special skills will enable us to further professionalize our work for the benefit and safety of our citizens," said Police Vice President Jürgen Rieger.”

The Association praises this German Police Force for its innovation and looks forward to seeing the results from the new Super Recogniser team.

35 "Super-Recognisers" take up work at the Offenburg Police (bnn.de)

More Proof that Humans are Always Needed!

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Facial recognition software and artificial intelligence can really assist law enforcement and security agencies, but you always need the BEST human to operate and verify these systems - for legal AND ethical reasons. See this article:

https://fortune.com/2022/01/21/responsible-a-i-cant-exist-without-human-centered-design-artificial-intelligence-tech/

Views from an Australian Super Recogniser

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Yenny Seo is an Australian Super Recogniser. In this video see gives an insight into her skill. Note that she has never been employed in law enforcement or security, so she has difficulty recalling names to match to faces. BUT with police, CCTV operators and security officers, they keep records of interactions, so it is easier to match names. In any case, the ability to match several images of a suspect to different crime scenes is still a valuable skill.  She also notes that she is unaware of any qualifications. You can be assured that Super Recognisers International (in partnership with the University of Greenwich) offer a course covering not just Super Recogniser assessment, but also data protection legislation, identification law and tactics. Vital to make a natural ability into an operationally deployable skill, which produces admissible evidence.


https://youtu.be/1q27i44nm_U

New Zealand Police NOT to use Live Automated Facial Recognition→

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Following an independent review, the police in New Zealand have decided not to use live AFR to identify offenders. One of the main reasons was a perceived bias against the Maori community. More reasons to utilise HUMAN super recognisers. The report is on this link:

Police release findings from independent expert review of Facial Recognition Technology | New Zealand Police

Super Matchers - Faces, Fingerprints & Firearms

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Super Matchers have one of the Super Recogniser skills and are excellent at matching an image to a face (e.g. a passport check) or image to image (CCTV of crime compared to mugshot or arrest photo). Research by the University of Exeter has shown that they may also be good at matching other objects and patterns, including firearms and fingerprints. A short test is included in the article below. All our tests and courses identify Super Recognisers AND Super Matchers.

A short test is included in this article:

Are you Britain's next super-matcher? You can take a test to find out (medicalxpress.com)