News and events

Prof. Charlie Frowd

Professor of Forensic Psychology

School of Psychology

Darwin Building, DB116

+44 (0) 1772 89 3257

cfrowd1@uclan.ac.uk

Subject Areas: Criminology and Policing, Psychology

Charlie works in the area of facial composites. In a forensic context, composites are constructed by witnesses and victims of crime, of offenders, to allow the police to solve crime. His approach is to make facial composites (from any system) as effective as possible, but he is perhaps best known for developing the EvoFIT system that is in use by Lancashire Police, and other police forces in the UK and overseas. He regularly trains police personnel and works directly with witnesses and victims of crime.

Charlie is research active in the Forensic Research Group and Cognitive Research Group.

Full Profile

Charlie’s collaborative research has developed important methodologies for evaluating the forensic use of facial composites and composite systems. His ‘gold standard’ procedure has highlighted important deficits in traditional feature systems used by some police practitioners.

The work has triggered a substantial uptake of the EvoFIT system that he designed, and he now provides front-line police training and support. More generally, his research is on all areas of composite face construction and usage. The work has developed mnemonics for cognitive interviewing which substantially improve the effectiveness of composites from all systems (feature, sketch and holistic).

A second contribution has been a programme of research to create EvoFIT (www.EvoFIT.co.uk). This holistic system, which he wrote and developed as part of his PhD at Stirling and thereafter, is more effective at accessing human memory than any other. EvoFIT has been in regular police use since 2007. Considerable research effort has also revealed a new method for feature systems to produce high identification rates and one European system has already implemented it and retrained its police users. In addition, a series of studies has developed novel methods for law enforcement to publish composites in the media, in newspapers and on TV, substantially improving identification rates.

http://www.evofit.co.uk/research/


Qualifications

  • Ph.D. Psychology, University of Stirling, 2001.
  • M.Sc. Neural Computation. University of Stirling. Distinction. 1996
  • B.A. Psychology and Linguistics. University of Wales. Double first. 1995.
  • B.Eng. Electronic Engineering. Middlesex University. First class. 1987.

Membership of Professional and Learned Bodies

  • Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society
  • Chartered Scientist
  • Member of International Investigative Interviewing Research Group
  • Member of British Machine Vision Association
  • Member of the European Association of Psychology and Law

Research Activities

  • Facial composite construction and identification

Conferences

  • European Association of Psychology and Law (EAPL)
  • Society for Applied Memory and Cognition
  • British Machine Vision Association
  • Emerging Security Technologies
  • International Investigative Interviewing Research Group