Speaker (Voice) Identification
Speaker Identification is carried out by a combination of auditory and acoustic methods (and, where appropriate, some text and discourse analysis methods) and provides an opinion as to whether a particular voice, for example recorded making a telephone call, or participating in a conversation recorded by a recording device, is that of a particular known person.
Speaker Identification may be requested for a number of different criminal offences, such as making genuine or hoax emergency service 999 (911, 000 or 112) calls to the police, ambulance or fire brigade, making threatening or harassing telephone calls, blackmail or extortion demands, taking part in criminal conspiracies such as those involving the importation, trafficking or manufacture of illegal drugs, or conspiring to traffic in people, arms, currency, cultural artefacts, pornography and wildlife.
Speaker Identification may also be required in civil cases or for the media. These cases include calls to radio stations, local or other government authorities, insurance companies, or recorded conversations, rallies or meetings. We have also been instructed in personal or family matters where identification is sought, but without police involvement.
AudioLex provides an opinion as to the likelihood of a particular person being involved, according to a scale of judgements. We are also bound by the International Association for Forensic Phonetics and Acoustic's Code of Conduct to provide details of the scope and limitations of the methods used.