The super recogniser
Community officer who never forgets a face helps force bring in 2,000 suspects
FOR criminals on eagleeyed Andy Pope’s patch, he must be their worst nightmare come true.
The police community support officer is blessed with a photographic memory – and has used it to catch almost 2,000 suspects.
Mr Pope can memorise faces he has seen only once, often recalling a person months after seeing low-quality CCTV footage or grainy police handouts.
In one case he recognised a suspect while patrolling a high street two years after he had first seen his picture. The perpetrator, later convicted of exposure, thought he had evaded capture. In other cases, he spotted a suspect by the mole on their face and an alleged robber in the street 12 months after seeing the man’s image.
Last year Mr Pope, dubbed ‘memory man’ by colleagues, recognised a suspect who had been wanted for two years over causing nuisance on train platforms across the Midlands.
The officer is what is known as a super recogniser – capable of memorising thousands of faces. His 2,000-strong haul of suspects includes 406 ‘spots’ last year alone – with 16 in one day.
The 42-year-old is a founder of the Association of Super Recognisers – a global body set up to help establish super recognition as a forensic tool.
Mr Pope, of Redditch, Worcestershire, patrols transport hubs in West Midlands with the Safer Travel Partnership team. He said: ‘I take great pride in being in a position to help the force catch criminals and protect the public. I’m fortunate faces stick in my memory.’
The officer has used his skill to catch suspects accused of offences such as attempted murder and sex assaults. In 2018 he was given a Chief Constable’s Award for identifying 1,000 suspects in five years.
‘If you look at a picture enough times, there is usually something that sticks in the mind as distinctive,’ he said. ‘Maybe I can’t pinpoint what that something is at the time but when I see the person in the flesh it triggers that recognition.’
Being a PCSO, the officer has no powers of arrest. When he spots a suspect on the beat, he calls colleagues in from the West Midlands force to make the arrest.
But despite having a memory for faces, the officer says he is ‘useless’ at remembering dates. He added: ‘My wife has to deal with things like birthdays and anniversaries.’
Mr Pope says he has no idea where his remarkable ability stems from as neither his father or mother displayed the same knack for remembering faces.