Capitalizing on the super-recognition advantage : a powerful, but underutilized, tool for policing and national security agencies

Davis, Josh P. and Robertson, David J. (2020) Capitalizing on the super-recognition advantage : a powerful, but underutilized, tool for policing and national security agencies. The Journal of The United States Homeland Defence and Security Information Analysis Center (HDIAC), 7 (1). pp. 20-25.

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Abstract

Accurate identity judgements are critical in ensuring that suspects can be apprehended by law enforcement and national security agencies, and that identity fraud attacks do not go undetected at border control points. Research has shown that typical human observers are poor at facial recognition in these contexts. However, there is now a decade’s worth of psychological science which shows that some individuals - known as super-recognizers - excel at such tasks. This article reviews the latest super-recognition science for agencies to consider implementing to enable a powerful and cost effective identity verification advantage.

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