diff --git a/src/licensedcode/detection.py b/src/licensedcode/detection.py
index 0391d1f8200..889c3ccdd10 100644
--- a/src/licensedcode/detection.py
+++ b/src/licensedcode/detection.py
@@ -17,8 +17,10 @@
 from collections import Counter
 
 import attr
+import click
 from license_expression import combine_expressions
 from license_expression import Licensing
+from time import time
 
 from commoncode.resource import clean_path
 from commoncode.text import python_safe_name
@@ -595,33 +597,25 @@ def get_unique_detections(cls, license_detections):
         Return all unique UniqueDetection from a ``license_detections`` list of
         LicenseDetection.
         """
-        identifiers = get_identifiers(license_detections)
-        unique_detection_counts = dict(Counter(identifiers))
-
+        detections_by_id = get_detections_by_id(license_detections)
         unique_license_detections = []
-        for detection_identifier in unique_detection_counts.keys():
-            file_regions = (
+
+        for all_detections in detections_by_id.values():
+            file_regions = [
                 detection.file_region
-                for detection in license_detections
-                if detection_identifier == detection.identifier
-            )
-            all_detections = (
-                detection
-                for detection in license_detections
-                if detection_identifier == detection.identifier
-            )
+                for detection in all_detections
+            ]
 
-            detection = next(all_detections)
+            detection = next(iter(all_detections))
             detection_mapping = detection.to_dict()
-            files = list(file_regions)
             unique_license_detections.append(
                 cls(
                     identifier=detection.identifier_with_expression,
                     license_expression=detection_mapping["license_expression"],
                     detection_log=detection_mapping["detection_log"],
                     matches=detection_mapping["matches"],
-                    count=len(files),
-                    files=files,
+                    count=len(file_regions),
+                    files=file_regions,
                 )
             )
 
@@ -638,6 +632,23 @@ def dict_fields(attr, value):
         return attr.asdict(self, filter=dict_fields)
 
 
+def get_detections_by_id(license_detections):
+    """
+    Get a dict(hashmap) where each item is: {detection.identifier: all_detections} where
+    `all_detections` is all detections in `license_detections` whose detection.identifier
+    is the same.
+    """
+    detections_by_id = {}
+
+    for detection in license_detections:
+        detection_id = detection.identifier
+        if detection_id in detections_by_id:
+            detections_by_id[detection_id].append(detection)
+        else:
+            detections_by_id[detection_id] = [detection]
+
+    return detections_by_id
+
 def get_identifiers(license_detections):
     """
     Return identifiers for all ``license detections``.