A group of Queensland Police officers are using their rare talents as ‘super recognisers’ to identify criminals within minutes.

‘Super recognisers’ are people found to be in the top one per cent of the population born with the ability to recognise and remember faces forever.

Senior Sergeant Chris Tritton is one of the 20 officers who make up a dedicated network of super recognisers in the state’s police force.

He told Luke Grant his skills have helped catch offenders “right up to the Cape and down to the border”.

“We’ll be looking at mug shots, at flyers, and then driving around, or on patrol, we’ll see that person or they may even pop up on CCTV,” he said.

“That’s how we’re matching them to multiple crimes.

“We may have previously identified someone 12 months ago, and this has happened to me many times, and then that footage pops up again and we straight away know who that person is.”

Press PLAY above to hear Senior Sergeant Chris Tritton explain how the skill works

You can hear more highlights from Ray Hadley below

Image: Vince Caligiuri/Getty Images