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Since 2009, the Insurance Corporation of B.C. has used facial-recognition technology to catch theft and fraud related to driver licences.

Now, the Crown corporation is offering to let Vancouver police use this technology for a very different purpose—to nab rioters who committed crimes in the wake of the Canucks’ Stanley Cup loss.

“Subject to receipt of a court order, the corporation’s facial-recognition technology will be able to support the identification of suspects,” states a news release issued today (June 17) by Premier Christy Clark’s office.

ICBC’s technology works by analyzing unchanging characteristics of faces, such as the distance between the eyes and the size and location of cheekbones.

The B.C. government also announced today that the Criminal Justice Branch has a team of Crown prosecutors ready to handle the prosecution of crimes related to the June 15 riot.

According to the release, the RCMP and Lower Mainland police forces have agreed to work on these cases with the Vancouver police in an Integrated Coordinated Investigation Team.

The provincial government has also launched a Facebook page called Heroes of British Columbia.

British Columbians are being encouraged to use the page to share “positive stories of volunteers, good Samaritans, emergency services personnel and others coming together”.

The government plans to publicly honour people who “demonstrated bravery and heroism during the chaos after the 2011 Stanley Cup final” in the weeks ahead.

Potential “heroes” can be nominated by sending an email to heroes@gov.bc.ca.

You can follow Stephen Hui on Twitter at twitter.com/stephenhui.