NYPD Now Scanning Facebook, Instagram Photos to Identify Criminals Felons, be careful what you post By David Kiefaber

If you're thinking of committing a felony in New York City anytime soon, keep an eye on how many photos of you are floating around on Facebook and Instagram. The NYPD's new Facial Recognition Unit is using software to scan faces in social media, and from surveillance-camera footage, and match them to the mugshots of known criminals. The amount of people posting photos online is a veritable boon to modern police investigation. By modern, I mean after 2006. Since the FRU can use only clear, straight-ahead portrait shots, trying this in the days of Myspace would have been impossible. Photo via.