In the wake of the 2011 edition of the Vancouver riots, a new website called Identifyrioters.com was quickly assembled to publish scraped photos from social media. Users are encouraged to identify individuals, log into their Facebook accounts, identify the person in question, and then relay the assembled information back the the VPD. It's also worth noting that this is a citizen led effort, and not a production of the VPD. It will be interesting to see how effective it is.
Unlike the '94 edition of the riots, things have changed dramatically in how digitally inclined our society has become. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time is still a bad decision; but now maybe more so. Now, authorities don't need to directly observe you. They don't even need their own cameras. It's your "friends" smartphones that will visually connect people to criminal activity (or the 'perception' there of…). A strange path to "big brother" indeed.
Probably the biggest problem the VPD faced last night was the volume of "observers", and clearing them out of the downtown core. I'm sure that was frustrating for them; but wouldn't it be an interesting twist if those observers (and their phone cameras) were used for the good of law enforcement after the fact?
Oh, and an old lesson for Parents — "teach your children well". Posing next to a burning car could haunt them for a long time.
I think I see a trend: in principle this can be used against any lawbreaker, including putatively misbehaving police at the G20 Summit.
If you happen to be using Apple's new iCloud offering, the photo will be sent to your other machines, so stealing, seizing or distroying a witnesses iPhone won't help.
And interesting extension on "5 minutes of fame", to include infamy as well.
–dave