{"id":186469,"date":"2025-06-15T13:46:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-15T13:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/186469\/"},"modified":"2025-06-15T13:46:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T13:46:12","slug":"west-midlands-polices-super-spotter-identifies-3000th-suspect-on-patrol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/186469\/","title":{"rendered":"West Midlands Police&#8217;s &#8216;super spotter&#8217; identifies 3,000th suspect on patrol"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WMP has a secret weapon in their fight against crime<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1_PCSO-Andy-Pope.jpg\" alt=\"PCSO Andy Pope has a special ability which helps him to remember faces of wanted men and women in the region\" loading=\"eager\"  \/>PCSO Andy Pope has a special ability which helps him to remember faces of wanted men and women in the region(Image: WMP)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">He never forgets a face and that is bad news for criminals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">PCSO Andy Pope possesses &#8216;super recogniser&#8217; abilities and can remember the majority of faces he has seen, even if they were wearing a mask or in a crowd.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">He is so good at recalling faces he has identified his 3,000th suspect whilst on patrol this year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \"><a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/news\/midlands-news\/birmingham-woman-who-pregnant-after-31841910\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Read More: Birmingham woman who got pregnant after sex with 13-year-old boy sobs as she&#8217;s jailed<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">The 47-year-old is part of the Safer Travel team and regularly patrols the transport network.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Andy will often look through CCTV, video stills and police briefings to keep himself updated on people who are wanted when starting a shift.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \"><a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/newsletter-preference-centre\/?view=Solus&amp;mailingListId=67ec6fc9-65d2-4b0c-b55e-ee73660ce693&amp;utm_source=solusarticle\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"[object Object]Link opens in a new tab.\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\">Get the latest BirminghamLive news direct to your inbox<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">It has seen him spot suspects in connection with a range of offences from attempted murder and assaults to sex attacks. These can often be in crowded places and award-winning Andy even managed to pick out people while they were wearing face masks during the <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.birminghammail.co.uk\/all-about\/coronavirus\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">CoVID<\/a> pandemic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Bournemouth University\u2019s Centre for Face Processing Disorders (CFPD) has discovered that two per cent of the population have enhanced facial recognition abilities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">The bad news for criminals is the super spotter hasn&#8217;t any intention of stopping anytime soon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Andy said: \u201cI\u2019m just glad I can assist in catching crime suspects and keeping communities safe across the West Midlands. \u201cIt\u2019s really hard to explain how I manage to remember and spot faces, as it just comes natural. \u201cIt\u2019s a nice feeling to have passed the 3,000 milestone since I started the role.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">&#8220;I\u2019m hoping there will be many more to come too!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WMP has a secret weapon in their fight against crimePCSO Andy Pope has a special ability which helps&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,188,393,4884,16,15,7830],"class_list":{"0":"post-186469","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-west-midlands-police"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114687691079241379","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}