Swedish Police Push for Real-Time Facial Recognition

The Swedish National Police is advocating for the deployment of real-time facial recognition technology to bolster efforts against serious crimes, such as those linked to the increasing number of gang-related incidents.

Whilst the technology for real-time facial recognition has only partial overlap with biometric verification for identity and secure documents, there is sufficient association between the two, in the public perception, for it to be of interest to the secure ID community.

National Police Chief, Petra Lundh, confirmed that a draft bill supporting the use of this technology has already been prepared, though further work is required before it can be submitted to parliament. The draft legislation aims to provide law enforcement with the legal framework to utilise facial recognition in real time, allowing officers to quickly identify and apprehend suspects.