Super Recognisers Agency

Super recognisers was started back in 2007 Detective Chief Inspector Mike Neville of the London Metropolitan Police was putting together an image database of unidentified criminals captured on CCTV. He asked officers to identify these offenders and it became apparent that a small number of officers were making the vast majority of identifications.

In early 2011, DCI Neville discussed his findings with Doctor (now Professor) Josh Davis, a psychologist at the University of Greenwich, who had been studied the use of CCTV identification in court proceedings for some time. Following initial testing, they realised that some of the officers had an extraordinary ability for face recognition.

Following the London Riots, in 2012 Mike formed the world’s first Super Recognisers Unit at New Scotland Yard, London– the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police. The retired DCI now dedicates his time to select and train people with this innate capacity from all corners of the globe to ensure that they can present their evidence in a legal and ethical manner.

Chief Executive Officer
Super Recognisers International Limited

Mike Neville MCSFS is the Chief Executive Officer of Super Recognisers International Ltd and delivers the face to face training for the Super Recogniser courses. As a Detective Chief Inspector at New Scotland Yard, he was the founder and head of the Metropolitan Police Central Forensic Image Team and the first Super Recogniser Unit.

As a result of his expertise, he was called onto assist enquiries all over the world, including the Cologne New Year’s Eve sex attacks, a murder in Australia and the Hillsborough Enquiry. In 2016, he solved a series of crimes using logo recognition software – another world first. According to Kevin Hurley, a retired Scotland Yard Chief Superintendent and Police and Crime Commissioner, Mike has solved more crimes with CCTV than any other detective.

To find out more about Mike Neville’s experience and to learn how Super Recognisers have helped solve high-profile cases, simply click below to download the course prospectus.

Honorary Fellow of the Association of Super Recognisers
BSc MSc PhD AFBPsS FHEA CPsychol

Dr Josh P Davis is a Professor in Applied Psychology at the University of Greenwich. He is also an elected Committee Member of the British Psychological Society: Cognitive Section, and an Associate Editor of the Cognitive Bulletin. He has published over 30 research articles on human face recognition, eyewitness identification, the reliability of facial composite systems (e.g., E-FIT, EFIT-V), and methods used by expert witnesses to provide evidence of identification in court (‘facial comparison evidence’).

Since April 2011, his research has mainly focussed on so called ‘super-recognisers’ with exceptional face recognition abilities. He has advised businesses, international police forces and Government agencies (e.g., Australia, Germany, Netherlands, Singapore, UK) on how to deploy super-recognisers. His co-edited book “Forensic Facial Identification: Theory and Practice of Identification from Eyewitnesses, Composites and CCTV” (Wiley Blackwell) was published in 2015.

Administrator for Super Recognisers International

Gemma Havard is the Administrator for Super Recognisers International and the Liaison Officer with the University of Greenwich. Gemma joined the Metropolitan Police in 2002. She quickly progressed to investigating robbery and other serious crimes in the busy areas of Peckham and South London. She was one of the first officers to serve on the Visual Images Identification & Detections Office (VIIDO), which ensured that the maximum number of CCTV images were available to solve volume and violent crime. She also set up the Met Circulation Unit, which massively increased the number of identifications in the Force – out of this work grew the Super Recognisers programme.

During this time, she regularly appeared on the BBC television programme Crimewatch Roadshow to ask the public to help to identify criminals “caught on camera”. This resulted in crimes committed in UK and internationally being solved. Gemma left the police to focus on her children, but now is an integral part of SRI and the Association of Super Recognisers.

Operations Manager & Super Recogniser

Based in the UK, Kelly works for Super Recognisers International Ltd as Chief Operating Officer. She has undergone extensive testing in the laboratory at the University of Greenwich and has also been part of a Super Recognition research programme at the University of Birmingham. Kelly is responsible for selecting the right Super Recognisers for each job and heads up teams for operations.

According to Professor Josh Davis, who leads research into Super Recognition at Greenwich, Kelly’s testing scores are the highest recorded out of some almost seven million people who have taken the online tests. Her experience so far includes finding new evidence in murder investigations for police forces, deploying on covert operations at high profile events and assisting in private investigations. Kelly carries out facial comparisons, surveillance and identifications for law enforcement, private security, authors, scholars, missing persons charities and cold cases. At this time, Kelly is the most experienced civilian Super Recogniser globally.

Former Police Officer
Metropolitan Police

Dale Nufer served in Metropolitan Police for thirty-five years from 1984 to 2019. He worked at the busy CCTV image unit at Charing Cross Police Station, where he identified hundreds of suspects for crimes including rape, kidnap, burglary, robbery and theft. Dale helped to bring many prolific offenders to justice by linking them to different crime images. He was also attached to Operation Resolve (the Hillsborough Enquiry), where he identified victims in the crowd footage. Dale was asked to use his Super Recogniser by The Times newspaper to identify a Great War soldier, who is seen on documentaries. This story featured in the national press. Dale is an expert at describing facial features, enabling Super Recognisers to articulate their identification evidence.