The Metropolitan Police force set up its Super-Recogniser Unit (SRU) in 2015, after the London riots. SRs can identify people from CCTV footage, even with hats and hoods on; they can still recognise a face with a different hair cut, with a beard or starts to wear glasses. Face recognition software cannot match their success as the software needs a face full-on, without a smile or other expression, or start to wear a pair of glasses. The SRU charging rate (percentage of criminals for which suspects are charged) is between four and five times higher than the police average. But (in Feb. 2017) it is the only unit in the country and consists of just one sergeant and five constables on attachment.
You may be a super-recogniser if:
- You can recognise faces you have only glimpsed on a single occasion.
- You can pick out unknown actors playing minor roles across different television programmes.
- You recognise the faces of people you have not seen since childhood.
- You cantell when two photographs, taken a long time apart, are images of the same person.
- You struggle to follow the plot of a film as you don't know who the characters are.
- When people change their hairstyle, or wear hats, you have problems recognising them.
- Anxiety about whether you will recognise people leads you to avoid certain social or professional situations.
- You find it difficult to picture individual faces in your mind.
Never forget a face ... or don't always recognise a friend? by Mary Ann Sieghart in Good Housekeeping, February 2017
