Changing the face of criminal identification

Abstract

Imagine you are a witness to a crime: you saw a young man running from a bank; it all happened very quickly, but you were able to have a good look at his face as he removed his balaclava. Would you be able to describe his face? There might not be useful CCTV footage from the bank, because of the mask, so would you also be able to make a recognisable image of his face? Until recently the answer to both questions would probably have been 'no'. But now a 10-year programme of research at the Universities of Stirling, Edinburgh and Central Lancashire is changing things. This article describes this ongoing work, which designs and evaluates improvements to each stage in the process: to the interview, to the system and to the presentation. The police in the UK are now using these techniques.