DogTrainer:

The Los Angeles Police Department is seeking half a million dollars from the federal government to expand the use of advanced facial-recognition systems to identify criminal suspects.

Police officials say the technology could be an important step in fighting crime.

"It's like a mobile electronic mug book," said Rampart Division Capt. Charles Beck. "It's not a silver bullet, but we wouldn't use it unless it helped us make arrests."

Civil liberties advocates are less enthusiastic about the technology, questioning its reliability and the privacy issues it raises...

Similar (re-written?) AP report here.