Researchers from the University of Notre Dame have begun researching a facial-recognition-based system they are calling a Questionable Observer Detector that would be able to identify criminals returning to the scene of the crime, according to a Network World article.

The idea for looking into such a system struck Kevin Bowyer, a professor of computer science and engineering at the university, after listening to military and national security experts discuss the need for identifying known bomb makers in the Middle East.

Bowyer, with his fellow researchers professor Patrick Flynn and doctoral student Jeremiah Barr, have previously worked in biometrics studying identification via facial photographs, face thermographs, iris recognition and gait biometrics. The new system utilizes video surveillance that would identify people who are in multiple videos of the site of a crime and mark their facial biometrics so that officials would be alerted should they be seen in the same surveillance system again.

The researchers are aware that the Questionable Observer Detector comes with potential civil liberty concerns, but expect the technology’s upside both as a tool for military personnel as well as for local police agencies is too high to ignore.

Read the full story here.