Sweden wants to let police use facial recognition technology

Sweden's government wants to enable law enforcement to identify suspects in certain crimes, by using real-time facial recognition technology from cameras in public areas. Strommer (middle) stated that the inquiry's goal was to give the government the ‘insight’ required to proceed ‘considerably’ with the use of cameras to combat crime. — AFP

STOCKHOLM: Sweden's government said June 3 that it wanted to give law enforcement the ability to use real-time facial recognition technology from cameras in public places, for example to identify people suspected of certain crimes.

The announcement comes after the European Union adopted rules to govern the use of artificial intelligence in March, which banned real-time facial recognition in public spaces but allowed some exceptions for law enforcement.