Thames Valley Police SR - Identified Burglar & Fraudster Sent to Jail

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Some great work by Thames Valley Police in bringing this man to justice. Dwayne Brown committed burglary and fraud against elderly victims and was identified from an image with help of a human Super Recogniser - and a civilian member of staff - and not an officer - showing that SRs can be in many places in an organisation.

TVP also use their SRs to proactively identify offenders on the street who commit violence against women and girls (VAWG).

The full story is here:

https://www.miltonkeynes.co.uk/news/people/man-who-targeted-elderly-victims-jailed-for-burglary-fraud-and-other-offences-in-milton-keynes-4433452

Working as a Super Recogniser at YOTI

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Human Super Recognisers can be used in all manner of law enforcement, border control, CCTV, security and military roles, and they are also excellent at checking identification and related documents. Here is an article about Lou Bruder, a Licentiate of the Association of Super Recognisers, and her work at YOTI, a company which verifies identification and other important documents. Louise describes what it is like to work as a Super Recogniser.

YOTI are great supporters of the Association and have sponsored our presentation day on several occasions.

https://wearetechwomen.com/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-super-recogniser-at-digital-identity-firm-yoti/

Australian Super Recognisers - Article

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An interesting article on the use of human Super Recognisers in the Queensland Police in Australia - with Senior Sergeant Chris Tritton (an Honorary Fellow of the Association) describing several successful cases where his team of SRs have made identifications. Also note that the team are used to verify suspects identified by computerised facial recognition software. If you are a senior officer or manager in a law enforcement agency, border patrol, military unit, security company or CCTV control room, you already have such people. My team can find them and train them to use their natural skill to produce admissible evidence and make places safer. If you are such a manager - why wouldn't you want to know that you had staff with this skill??

 https://cosmosmagazine.com/people/society/super-recognisers-police/

Super Recogniser On Line Courses 2024 - Dates

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It has been confirmed that the first two SRI on line courses will be run 27th - 29th February and 18th - 20th June. The objectives of the course are as follows:

·        To complete final testing to identify short term, long term and crowd identification Super Recogniser skills.

·        To ensure students have a knowledge of legal, evidential & data protection issues relating to Super Recognisers (some sections relate to UK and EU law, but generic rules will apply to all jurisdictions and US and Australian law is noted)

·        To enhance Super Recognisers with behavioural detection training.

·        To brief Super Recognisers on current threats and future crime trends.

·        To train Super Recognisers in operational tactics.

·        To test these abilities by realistic exercises.

Some feedback from the last course:  

"The course offered a great overview on both scientific and practical aspects of face recognition. I found the real-life examples of various surveillance situations and criminal and legal cases particularly useful, since I do not have a background in law enforcement or security. I appreciated that we got to learn from experienced professionals, and that we were also actively involved in exercises and encouraged to reflect on the discussed topics." 

Anna, Finland

Super Matchers - New Zealand Research

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Super Matchers are a sub-set of Super Recognition abilities and relates to people who are very good at matching an image to another image (say comparing a CCTV image to a “mugshot”) or an image to a face (the task a border control officer performs when checking a passport). It not only relates to faces, but also shapes, which is very useful for Fingerprint Officers. An article on the latest research into this area from the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, together with a test can be found on this link:

https://www.bethanygrowns.com/are-you-a-super-matcher

Super Recognisers Protected King Charles

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The article below describes how a Thames Valley Police Super Recogniser helped to enhance the security at the King’s coronation. This pro-active use of SRs can make places and venues safer.

'I'm a Super Recogniser and scoured Coronation crowd for wrong 'uns to keep King safe' - Daily Star

Association at Thames Valley Police Media Day

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The successful Thames Valley Police use of human Super Recognisers to target suspects engaged in VAWG (Violence Against Women & Girls) and other offenders featured in yesterday's Media Day and have been reported on the BBC, as well as local media stations. For a report see this link:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-66609161

Prof Josh Davis Podcast - The Academic View on Super Recognisers

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Here is an academic view on human Super Recognisers from Professor Josh Davis of Greenwich University as featured on The Perception Podcast. Listen to Josh as he explains how he began his research and his latest findings.

https://omny.fm/shows/the-perception-podcast/professor-josh-davis

Another Wrongful US Arrest from Automated Facial Recognition

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From the article:

Porcha Woodruff was eight months pregnant when police in Detroit, Michigan came to arrest her on charges of carjacking and robbery. She was getting her two children ready for school when six police officers knocked on her door and presented her with an arrest warrant. She thought it was a prank.

“Are you kidding, carjacking? Do you see that I am eight months pregnant?” the lawsuit Woodruff filed against Detroit police reads. She sent her children upstairs to tell her fiance that “Mommy’s going to jail”.

…Woodruff later found out that she was the latest victim of false identification by facial recognition. After her image was incorrectly matched to video footage of a woman at the gas station where the carjacking took place, her picture was shown to the victim in a photo lineup. According to the lawsuit, the victim allegedly chose Woodruff’s picture as the woman who was associated with the perpetrator of the robbery. Nowhere in the investigator’s report did it say the woman in the video footage was pregnant. A month later the charges were dismissed due to insufficient evidence (full article link is below).

The view from the Association: In the UK and EU, no arrests can be made from an automated facial recognition (AFR) identification unless there has been "human intervention". The best person to verify an identification is a Super Recogniser - the US agency NIST stated that combining AFR with a Super Recogniser produced "near perfect results". If police agencies have invested in computer facial recognition, they should ensure that they also invest in the best humans to make it even more effective. Reports such as those quoted will result in more restrictions and even bans on the use of AI by security and law enforcement...so this Association strongly recommends the use of the best people to check identifications before making arrests.

TechScape: ‘Are you kidding, carjacking?’ – The problem with facial recognition in policing | US news | The Guardian