Three cheers for crowd sourcing...
I've said before that I don't belong to social networks because I value the private details in my life. Unlike many people who post a remarkable amount of personal detail about themselves on social sites, I'm aware that everything I post online will live forever, so there is some self-censorship.
When it comes to solving (or preventing) serious crime, however, I think law enforcement officials are entitled to use whatever tools are at their disposal. In my opinion, Great Britain's policy of using public street cameras and facial recognition software is a model that should be copied by everyone. If you're in public and committing a crime, you should have no expectation of privacy.
And placing bombs at the site of the prestigious Boston Marathon qualifies as a serious crime.
I didn't think that the United States (and Boston, in particular) had the means to do this kind of tracking. What I hadn't counted on is the remarkable cooperation of businesses and the massive amount of crowd-sourced photos and videos making the job easier for the authorities.
Much of the stuff you see in military and spy movies about real-time facial recognition and movement tracking software may or may not be real. But, in the case of this manhunt, it's clear that the police were able to quickly establish the identities of the perpetrators.
Recent news reports indicate that one of the suspects has already been killed (during a "violent police chase") and I don't believe it will be long until the other suspect - his younger brother - is also apprehended.
I hope this second brother is taken alive. I'd love to know the motivation for the attacks. I'd also enjoy the thought of this person having to spend the rest of his days behind bars.
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