Swedish police to use automatic image analysis in criminal probes

The Swedish police have been given the all-clear to use automatic image analysis in criminal investigations, which means AI and face-recognition technology may now be used to scan and analyze CCTV footage, reported Xinhua, quoting Swedish Television (SVT) report on Monday.

The move comes after the National Forensic Center (NFC), which is part of the Swedish Police Authority, carried out a pilot project in which the technology -- now greenlit by the Swedish Data Protection Authority -- was successfully used in criminal investigations to trace suspects' movements and more. The tool can also be used to read license plates and biometric data, according to SVT report.

At the beginning, the new technology will be used in urban areas only where it will enable investigators to filtrate and analyze single objects captured in security camera footage, meaning vehicles, weapons, clothing and other items as well as people can be singled out and tracked, said the report.

"It's a tool that can be used to assist in preliminary investigations where there is a large amount of still and moving images available. While a lot of manual work will still be necessary, this clearly reduces the time needed for analysis of the material," Niclas Appleby, a forensic analyst at the NFC, was quoted as saying by SVT.

The next step for the Police Authority will be to formulate guidelines for how and when investigators may be allowed to use the tool. Appleby told SVT that searches carried out using this technology will not be matched to the police's registers or be used in analyzing real-time camera surveillance footage but rather in captured images.

"This involves handling personal, biometric data from faces that appear in the material used in the investigations, and the Data Protection Authority has deliberated on this and concluded that we have a legitimate reason for wanting to employ this technology," said the forensic analyst.