A study has found that social media website Twitter can detect and track riots faster than they are reported to the police. The study is based on the London riots in 2011 and has been published in the ACM Transactions on Internet Technology journal.

According to the study, a computer system, developed by researchers at Cardiff University, could detect incidents, even violent ones such as torching of cars and shops being vandalized, before the UK Metropolitan Police Service got reports of such incidents. The system could even detect where riots could take place and where groups could gather.

The researchers believe that this can be a valuable addition to policing methods, as more and more people choose to report their observations on social media.