#super recognisers

Jacob Anderson in the short film “The Super Recogniser”

(Photo credit: @angstosaur / video links on bsky here) Joseph Potter in “Grace” s5ep3

Science

I remember that face... how police Super Recognisers are fighting crime

They are the coppers who never forget a face. A new police team has been formed to use old fashioned policing techniques to recognise serial offenders. They trawl the force database of 90,000 CCTV images of suspects from unsolved crimes. Detective Chief Inspector Mick Neville, head of the unit, said: "We've found that certain officers were just very good at looking at faces, or bits of faces, an ear or a nose, a suspect's gait, and recognising the same characteristics in other footage of unsolved crimes."

That means they are more likely to plead guilty and more likely to go to prison.

Det Ch Insp Mick Neville

The squad was created after success in identifying many suspects during the London riots in 2011. In 2014, it helped track the last-known movements of schoolgirl murder victim Alice Gross in West London. The Super Recognisers were called in by police this year to help trace gangs involved in sexual assaults during New Year's Eve celebrations in Cologne. The squad's latest target is a robber Craig Adams, 33, who is due to be sentenced today at the Inner London Crown Court. An officer managed to link his face to many other crimes and Adams pleaded guilty to 13 robberies in which he stole £4,300, and three burglaries.

I managed to see part of his face from several angles, so it wasn't as difficult as some.

Fascinating. People who have an uncanny ability to recognise people. Skills often used in police work.

NYT article

BBC article