How are French police identifying looters? Social media is key

PARIS — France's police striving to identify and arrest looters who shattered shops in last weekend's unrest are relying on one tool to trigger their forensic follow-up: social media. "We are working the social networks... then we go over all that with our own tools, to see if the crimes seen on social media correspond with the crimes we're studying," said an officer seated in a special operations room with 10 screens in front of him. The officer, identified only by his first name, Bruno, was seated in a gamer-style chair, pushing a mouse around as looked closely at a video. He said he was convinced he had identified a group of four youths who took part in the looting that had scarred Paris streets. Using street security cameras as well as cameras installed in the Paris region's transport system, Bruno tracked the four as they carried their haul, almost up to their home addresses. The officer was one of a dozen specialists carrying out similar digital hunts on screens in the cramped Security Operational Coordination Centre. Footage and police footwork The team, at work since Monday, has 8