The worldwide search for super-recognisers in the police, security and the general public

The primary case evidence in most of the 5,000 convicted London 2011 rioters was identification from CCTV by London’s Metropolitan Police Service (MET) police officers. A third were identified by MET ‘super-recognisers’, some of whom had previously been found to possess exceptional face recognition abilities. Subsequently, the MET established a full time "Super-Recogniser Unit" leading to 1,000s of suspect identifications per annum. This presentation will describe some of the science behind super-recognition, the tests used to identify police super-recognisers, and the results of tests for members of the public, one of which has been taken by over 6 million participants. Other worldwide police forces and businesses have since instituted their own super-recogniser teams to enhance their operations when correct identification is a priority