Swedish police should be allowed to use real-time AI-powered face-recognition to combat crime, Sweden’s government has proposed as it seeks new tools to stop sometimes violent offences rocking the country in recent years.
The proposed law would allow the police to use artificial intelligence technology to locate or identify people in connection with serious crimes such as human trafficking, kidnapping and murder.
“To push back gang crime and restore security in society, the police must have access to effective tools,” Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer said in a statement.
Sweden has been plagued by gang violence for more than a decade and had by far the European Union’s highest rate of deadly gun violence per capita in 2023, the latest year for which there are comparable statistics.
The violence has come to overshadow all else in Swedish politics, driving the rise of a conservative coalition that came to power in 2022.
The launch of the coalition ended eight years of rule by the Social Democrats, Sweden’s dominant political party since the 1930s.
The government said the new law, which is still to be put to a vote in parliament and would come into effect at the beginning of 2026 if passed, would comply with personal integrity laws and only be used in matters of particular importance.
https://thewest.com.au/news/crime/sweden-govt-wants-to-let-police-use-ai-face-recognition-c-18108241
