Evaluating a new computer-based system for face recall

The Computer-Aided Design Centre has developed a new face recall system which enables a witness to construct the image of a suspect on a television screen. The system currently uses the Photofit library and method of construction. Likenesses of target faces produced by subjects (n=36) using the new system were compared to conventional Photofits produced by a second group of subjects (n=36) of the same targets. There was no difference on any of the three measures employed in the assessed quality of the likenesses produced by Photofit and the CADC System. Both systems tended to produce more recognizable composites when construction was carried out in the presence of the target compared to its absence. Composites made from memory on the initial trial were marginally better with the CADC System than with Photofit. While both systems showed low absolute accuracy, they enjoyed a measure of success in transmitting a likeness of a facial type. It is concluded that while the CADC system shows promise, psychological constraints upon witnesses' powers of recall may place limits on the absolute accuracy achievable with any system of face reconstruction.These experiments were financed by grant No. POL/73 1675/24/3 from the Police Scientific Development Branch of the U.K. Home Office. Points of view expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of the funding body. Our gratitude and thanks are due to Tony Kitson and Clive Holloway for their many hours spent developing and operating the CADC system; Jean Shepherd for her skills as a Photofit operator; the Computer-Aided Design Centre; and the MRC Applied Psychology Unit, Cambridge for facilities and subjects.     

The failure of local government modernization in Britain: a critique of functionalism

Abstract. Modernizing local government systems to meet changing needs and urbanization is common to most Western democracies. This article examines the British local government modernization which, it argues, placed far too much emphasis on improving the system's functional capacity and too little to improving its democratic quality. The overemphasis on functionalism has been most decisive in relation to creating wider areas for planning and transportation and creating more populous local units so as to exploit economies of scale. The result is a system with some of the largest local units among Western democracies. The new system is also very unpopular. Yet, even when judged in functional terms it has serious weaknesses especially in regard to its failure to recognize the different functional needs of urban and rural areas. The article makes a strong plea for the restoration of democratic as opposed to functional criteria in the design of local government systems and notes the contribution that public choice theory can make to local government reorganization by its insistence on distribution efficiency as opposed to production efficiency. Sommaire. La modemisation des systèmes de gouvemement local pour répondre à de nouveaux besoins et aux exignences de l'urbanisation est commune à la plupart des démocraties occidentales. L'auteur de cet article étudie la modemisation du gouvernement local britannique qui, à son avis, a trop porté sur l'amélioration de la capacité fonctionnelle du système et pas assez sur sa qualité démocratique. La trop grande importance accordée au fonctionnel a joué un rôle particulièrement décisif en créant de grandes régions pour la planification et le transport et des unités locales à très forte densité de population de façon à profiter des économies d'échelle. Le résultat, c'est un système qui compte certaines des unités démographiques les plus fortes dans les démocraties occidentales. Ce nouveau système est aussi très impopulaire. Etmême lorsqu'on le juge du point de vue fonctionnel, il accuse une très grave faiblesse en ne distinguant pas entre les besoins fonctionnels différents des régions urbaines et rurales. L'auteur plaide en faveur de la restauration de critères démocratiques plutôt que fonctionnels pour la conception de systèmes de gouvemement local et il indique la contribution que pourrait apporter la théorie du choix public à la réorganisation du gouvernement local grâce à son insistance sur l'efficacité de la distribution plutôt que sur l'efficacité de la production.