Forensic examiners

Rear view of a NSW police officer

Finding police officers with superior face recognition abilities is now backed by science.

A closeup of a woman's face with data points highlighted

Our brains are wired to recognise faces holistically, but focusing on two standout features can improve performance, a new UNSW study shows.

David White

The first study to test the skills of FBI agents and other law enforcers who have been trained in facial recognition has provided a reassuring result – they perform better than the average person or even computers on this difficult task.