Super-recognisers track down rioters

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The 43-year-old police constable is one of an elite group of officers whose exceptional memories are being harnessed to pursue looters and troublemakers.

He has an amazing ability to recognise faces of people he has encountered in his years on the beat and as a detective tackling Hackney's gangs.

Pc Collins is one of 20 officers called "super-recognisers" being employed by the Met to track down rioters. They all have an extraordinary talent in recalling the names and faces they have seen in their past duty.

They can be suspects they have arrested or know from intelligence, people they have stopped or recognised from police databases.

Pc Collins, who has spent the last 11 years at Hackney police station, said: "Everyone says I have a photographic memory but I have no idea what that is.

"I just have a knack of remembering faces and names, it is just a skill."

He says he has even been able to recognise people who covered their faces with scarves.

"I have picked out quite a few from just their eyes but the problem is trying to convince the Crown Prosecution Service that is the person you say it is.

"They take some convincing because they have to take it to a jury," he said.

So far he has picked out more than 180 people after watching thousands of hours of CCTV footage and scouring hundreds of photographs. The Met has made 3,864 arrests over the riots.