In the Media

Memory Cop: Andy Pope, fighting crime with his memory for faces

PUBLISHED August 26, 2012
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His identification skills have made him his police force's secret weapon, and drastically cut crime on his patch.

He has identified suspects from CCTV footage so grainy that senior officers said they wouldn't have recognised their own mothers in the picture.

He has picked out thieves from the shape of their moustaches, and identified a mugger in the dark - nearly a year after seeing his grainy photo in a police briefing.

He has got the criminal fraternity so nervous that it is asking whether there has been some sort of mysterious breakthrough in CCTV technology.

Detectives, meanwhile, know that when they have exhausted all other means of putting a name to a suspect's face, they can call upon their secret weapon: "memory cop."

Mr Pope, 34, a Police Community Support Officer for West Midlands Police, has correctly identified around 250 suspects since being posted to the force's Safer Travel Partnership in 2008.

With every year, the number of faces stored in his internal memory bank expands - so his identification rate has now "gone through the roof".

In the past year he has identified 150 suspects - equivalent to one every other shift. Many of his identifications result in successful arrests.

In roughly the same period, the year-on-year total of recorded victims of crime on the West Midlands transport network has dropped by 345 - a fall of 12 per cent.

For every shift, the married father of one from Redditch, Worcestershire, arrives at work half an hour early, logs on to his computer, and scrutinises the pictures of suspects that feature in the day's internal police briefing. He spends his lunch break re-examining the pictures, to refresh his memory.

Sometimes a quick glance at the computer screen is enough for him to recognise an offender - as happened last March when detectives were hunting a robber who had held up a teenager on a bus.

Mr Pope said: "I recognised the offender the moment I saw the CCTV footage. He had bum fluff above his top lip, which to me was quite distinctive."

Corey Wilmot, 20, is now serving a four-year sentence for robbery.

Others identified from a single glance at a CCTV image include 21-year-old Leon Smith, who was wanted in connection with an assault. Smith has now pleaded guilty to wounding with intent.

Mr Pope said: "If you look at a picture enough times, there is usually something that sticks in the mind as distinctive. 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."

His job entails travelling around the region on public transport, allowing him to see more people than many officers. His frequent travel also increases his chances of encountering suspects whose images he has seen on the police computer.

Even so, some of his feats have stunned his colleagues - and the arrested criminals.

In March 2010 CCTV footage of a mugger appeared on the police briefing and the BBC's Crimewatch programme. No one, however, had been able to recognise the robber, until he strolled past Mr Pope nearly a year later.

"It was already dark but in the split second when this lad walked past me, I thought: 'I know that face'," he said. "I approached him and got his details."

A 16-year old subsequently received a six-month youth referral order.

Inspector Gareth Morris, his senior officer, admitted he initially doubted Mr Pope: "Two days after I joined the team, Andy came to me with a photo saying he knew who this robbery suspect was.

"I told him I would struggle to pick out my own mother in a picture like that. One and a half hours later Andy had stopped the guy in the city centre and the suspect had admitted being present at the scene."

Mr Pope has just received the West Midlands police staff member of the year award.

Inspector Morris said: "He has significantly contributed to the reduction in crime. He has taken out a lot of individuals, and deterred others. There is a growing feeling among the criminal fraternity that they we will be recognised.

"This week one of my colleagues was approached by a teenager who is known for robbery on the bus network. He was asking about CCTV and how good it was. He said 'You can't view us all, can you?' He was told 'Yes we can'."

Mr Pope said detectives were also starting to use his skills when all else had failed.

"CID will sometimes drop me an email as a last resort in things like burglary and robbery investigations. I have been able to identify the suspect in one or two cases."

He admitted, however, that even he doesn't know exactly how he does it.

Scientists have long known about the part of the brain thought to be responsible for facial recognition - the fusiform face area, in the upper part of the temporal lobe on the brain's right-hand side.

Many researchers, however, are sceptical about whether so-called "photographic memory" is a real phenomenon, saying it has never been proved under scientific conditions.

Mr Pope said he had never been scientifically tested. During his childhood and in his previous job as a shop manager, there was no special call for his recognition skills, so he had no awareness of his gift.

He said: "I thought I was just normal until Inspector Morris told me I was identifying far more people than anyone else.

"I don't know whether I have a photographic memory. My wife has to deal with things like birthdays and anniversaries. When it comes to remembering dates, I'm useless."

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