AP: Facial Recognition Designed For 2012 Olympics Being Used To Identify U.K. Rioters

The Associated Press reports that facial recognition technology being considered for the upcoming 2012 Olympic Games in London is being tested by police in the aftermath of Britain’s riots. The AP’s Paisley Dodds and Raphael Satter write officers are “feeding photographs of suspects through Scotland Yard’s newly updated face-matching program” in an attempt to identify those who were responsible for the wave of riots that began in North London and quickly spread. “A law enforcement official tells The Associated Press that facial recognition is one of many tools police are using to hunt suspects still at large.”

This follows a report by TechCrunch that a new Google Group called “London Riots Facial Recognition” sought to use the technology to identify rioters and looters whose photos have appeared online:

In one newer thread, started just this morning, a commenter offers their assistance in building a tool using the Face.API, which could help identify people in photos posted on Facebook, Flickr and Twitter. There is even talk of using the Facebook Graph API and the Twitter API in conjunction with the Face.com one to help better identify the criminals.

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