London Evening Standard/London

A squad of police officers and civilians with special powers to remember faces are driving down thefts at concerts and crime hotspots.
The team of “super recognisers” are being deployed at sites such as Buckingham Palace and the British Museum to deter and catch pickpockets and thieves.
The officers, skilled at picking out faces from a crowd, are also being sent to rock concerts, which became notorious for attracting phone thieves.
At a Pharrell Williams concert at the O2 last October, one “super recogniser” spotted a gang of five suspected thieves in the mosh pit who were intercepted by police. There were no crimes at the concert that night, an almost unprecedented event.
At an Arctic Monkeys concert, 17 suspects were identified and prevented from entering the venue.
The Scotland Yard-based team are used to spot faces in crowds at events such as the Notting Hill Carnival or to patrol pickpocketing hotspots such as Oxford Street.
Acting sergeant Paul Smith, who co-ordinates the group, said: “Their talent is holding an image in their head and going out, sometimes months or even years later, and being able to recognise that person and say, ‘That’s John Smith’. We are deploying the group to tourist areas where pickpockets and thieves operate and they go out to spot known thieves.”
At rock concerts, it was once common for dozens of mobile phones to be stolen at each event, but the figure has now dropped to a handful or even zero.
Details of the new squad emerged as the Met held a three-day event for 72 “super recognisers” in an effort to identify criminals from CCTV images of 3,000 suspects.