On January 28, 2001, when the crowds streamed into Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay, Florida for Super Bowl XXXV, they were being scanned by facial recognition cameras in an effort to catch criminals in what became known as the Snooper Bowl, Wired remembers. The experiment was a failure, as no criminals were identified that day, nor did the system work when later deployed on the streets of Tampa. Today, however, police in that city use digital cameras to take pictures of individuals stopped for traffic violations for comparison against a database of 7.5 million mug shots. More than 500 people have been arrested under the program.

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