Prf Graham Pike

The Citizen Forensics project reframes key challenges that underlie modern policing in a socio-technical world; a world instrumented with mobile and ubiquitous computing technologies, in which many citizens and communities live, work and play, but which must also manage threats to their wellbeing and their rights. The project aims to support a new engagement between authorities (such as the police) and communities of citizens in order to better investigate (and in the long term reduce) potential or actual threats to citizen security, safety, and privacy. This includes both empowering the police by opening up new ways of citizens providing data in ways that protect privacy and anonymity, and empowering citizens by using these new technologies to also hold the police to account. We will be harnessing many of the so-called Internet of Things, Smart City and Smart Home technologies to encourage and allow citizens to help the police collect and analyse disparate data to improve public safety at both local and ultimately national levels. This multidisciplinary investigation draws upon expertise in computing, policing, psychology and organisational theory. For more information, see https://www.citizenforensics.org/

Super-recognisers (SR) are defined as individuals with superior facial recognition skills (Russel, Duchaine, Nakayama, 2009), and have been found to outperform control individuals (i.e., non-super-recognisers) when matching faces to simultaneously presented line-ups and at recognising faces from videos (Bobak, Hancock, & Bate, 2016). These ‘super’ skills in facial recognition suggest that SR may be the ideal candidates to work as immigration officers and CCTV analysts (Bobak et al., 2016). However, as well as performance in experimental conditions, utilising SR in the field would require additional capabilities, including avoiding bias, which may be introduced through context (i.e., knowledge of the decisions made by other SRs when investigating the same face), that might influence a decision. Previous research has shown that forensic scientists, who have expertise in analysing forensic evidence (e.g. DNA), are influenced by contextual information (Dror, Charlton, & Peron, 2006), so it is critical to determine whether SR are similarly affected. The proposed study will, therefore, aim to investigate if contextual information biases face-experts (i.e., SR). To achieve this aim, SR will be identified by using valid and reliable measures (e.g., the Cambridge Face Memory Test+; Duchaine & Nakayama, 2006). A 2 (context vs. no context) x 2 (target face present vs. absent from CCTV) x 2 (high resolution image vs. low resolution image) x 2 (SR vs. control) experimental design will be utilised to investigate if context influences the recognition judgments of SR when compared to controls. In 50% of trials, participants will be introduced to context by informing them of the decision made by a fictitious super-recogniser. The contextually biased trials will be counterbalanced over the course of the research. Image quality will be manipulated as context influences decisions more in ambiguous contexts (Dror et al., 2006).

The primary research question we are seeking to address is: 1. How might PTSD like symptoms, such as flashbacks, be reduced in police officers and staff who are repeatedly exposed to trauma. The hypotheses we are planning to test are: • Undertaking a demanding, visuospatial task such as playing the Tetris game, will reduce the frequency of PTSD like symptoms in police officers dealing with CSA imagery. • EDMR treatment will reduce the frequency of PTSD like symptoms in police officers dealing with CSA imagery. • This project addresses an increasingly important operational issue of supporting the health and wellbeing of officers and staff who are exposed to trauma as a routine part of their role, using a relatively simple to employ and cost-effective intervention.

Seeking CPRL funding to undertake a scoping review to ascertain existing evidence of mHealth Apps designed and developed for Police/blue light Personnel. This would provide initial evidence to be used in conjunction with the funded CPRL project ‘Cognitive gaming as a vaccination for PTSD arising from CEOPs work’; in a bid to scale up and apply for larger funding grants.