Successful Super Recogniser Covert Exercise Weekend

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Over the weekend 3rd - 4th June, SRI Ltd ran a covert exercise, based on a terrorism scenario in central London. Super Recogniser had to spot the offenders and were then trained in covert surveillance techniques to follow them to identify their target. Students attended from the UK, USA, Germany, Israel, Austria and Bulgaria. Certificates will be presented at the Association Day later in the year.

Feedback was excellent. This is from an Austrian SR:

It was “incredibly exciting and very informative, great atmosphere… Kelly and Mike are wonderful teachers and could explain everything well, the theory in the lessons was easy to understand and important for the future work of a SR…The live exercise was very adrenaline charged, well explained, organized and realistic.”

A further course will be held in the Autumn and the next SR on line course will be held 20nd - 22nd June, where your super recognition skills can be tested and you will learn about the legal issues - surveillance, identification and data protection laws.

Another German Super Recogniser Unit - Rhineland Palatinate

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The German police continue to drive forward the use of human Super Recognisers - the latest police force is in Rhineland-Palatinate, with testing in the capital city, Mainz.

From the article (which has been translated): A test phase with super recognizers in Rhineland-Palatinate has been so promising that this is to become an integral part of the fight against crime in the state. According to the State Office of Criminal Investigation, the Super Recognizers deliver far better facial recognition results than computer programs in some areas. "Super recognizers are able to recognize people even on very poor footage or with significant age-related or other optical changes," said Interior Minister Michael Ebling (SPD). In particular, their use could provide clues as to whether suspects appeared on different images in different contexts of the crime.

https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/rheinland-pfalz/polizei-rlp-setzt-vermehrt-auf-super-recognizer-und-virtual-reality-100.html

The Need for Super Recognisers - Voter ID

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This article explains that most people are unable to accurately match faces. In the UK, voters now have to produce identification documents, but the many staff at Polling Stations are unable to spot those trying to vote fraudulently. See the article:

https://phys.org/news/2023-05-opinion-people-terrible-photos-polling.html

New South Wales Police - Super Recognisers Spread "Down Under"

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Police in New South Wales are now identifying their human Super Recognisers. The tactic is spreading across Australia, as the Queensland Police have been using them for some time. From the article:

Dr David White noted..."that while artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly being used for face recognition, human abilities are still superior. Police already use this technology in Australia. When the police are using it for investigation they’ve often got a poor quality image and then use that image to search a massive database – all AI can do is throw up the most faces that are similar. It can’t say definitively that is the same person or not, so this is why we still need humans to make the final call.”

NSW police members face off in mug match test (cosmosmagazine.com)

The Opposite of Super Recognition - Face Blindness!

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This article from The Guardian newspaper covers Face Blindness. But how many law enforcement agencies, borders forces, CCTV Control Rooms and security companies unwittingly employ people with this condition to review images of suspects, monitor surveillance cameras, check passports or compare a face with a security pass allowing access to critical buildings??

‘Sometimes I don’t recognise my own family’: life with face blindness | Health & wellbeing | The Guardian

New UK Law & Super Recognisers at Events

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Following the Manchester Arena Inquiry, the proposed "Martyn's Law" has now been released as the "Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Draft Bill".

It refers to the "enhanced duty to take security measures" at large venues, in particular, Section 15 states that, "The person responsible...must ensure that all such reasonably practicable measures are in place...to— (a) reduce the risk of acts of terrorism occurring at, or in the immediate vicinity of, the premises or event, and (b) reduce the risk of physical harm to individuals if acts of terrorism."

Given all the scientific research to show the value of human Super Recognisers by Prof Josh Davis, Dr David Robertson and other academics, the deployment of them is a "reasonably practicable measure".

The Association will be pushing venues and events to use Super Recognisers.

The proposed law can be seen here:

Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Draft Bill (publishing.service.gov.uk)

First Man Wrongly Arrested in USA - Computer Facial Recognition

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This articles shows why law enforcement needs HUMAN Super Recognisers - to identify and link offenders to multiple crimes by images AND to verify computerised facial recognition identifications. In the UK, EU and other parts of the world "human intervention" is a legal requirement before arrests are made using automated facial recognition systems.

From the Article:

In 2020, Robert Williams was arrested for allegedly stealing thousands of dollars of watches. Detroit police had matched grainy surveillance footage of the crime to Williams’ driver’s license photo using a facial recognition service. But Williams wasn’t the robber. At the time of the robbery, he was driving home from work.

Williams’ arrest was the first documented case of someone being wrongfully detained based on facial recognition technology, which is used by police departments and government agencies across the US.

Read more here:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/27/california-police-facial-recognition-software

Improvements in Facial Recognition Systems - BUT Still Humans are Needed

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A report by the National Physical Laboratory in the UK has found that there has been a “substantial improvement” in the accuracy of automated facial recognition systems and an elimination of bias against women and ethnic minorities.  The NPL noted that for watchlists of 1,000 or 10,000 people, “true positive identification rate” of live facial recognition was 89%. Previously, for a watchlist of 2,000 to 4,000 people, it was 72%.

BUT according to the Surveillance Camera Commissioner’s Code of Practice, “human intervention” is required before arrests are made as a result of a computerised identification. AND the Commissioner has further stated that: “Senior (police) officers should ask themselves how they select, train, instruct, deploy, manage and analyse the performance of the human decision maker…”

Who is better to perform this role than a HUMAN Super Recogniser? According to the US agency NIST, combining Super Recognisers and computerised facial recognition produces “near perfect results”. Unfortunately, too often, senior commanders allow any officer to verify the identification. This is putting the use of facial recognition at further risk and, more importantly, can result in innocence people being detained, whilst the guilty escape justice.  The Association can help you to find your Super Recognisers.

Report on this link:

https://science.police.uk/research/resources/operational-testing-of-facial-recognition-technology/