Sweden Files Bill On The Use Of AI-Based Facial Recognition By Police To Repress Crime

Swedish police illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/John Christian Fjellestad)

JAKARTA - Swedish police should be allowed to use real-time AI-powered facial recognition technology to combat crime, the Swedish government's proposal on Thursday, in line with their efforts to find new ways to stop rising crime in recent years.

The proposed law will allow police to use AI technology to find or identify people linked to serious crimes, such as human trafficking, kidnapping and murder.

"To suppress gang crimes and restore security in the community, police must have access to effective tools," Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer said in a statement.

The government says the new law, which still has to go through a vote in parliament and will take effect in early 2026 if passed, will comply with private integrity laws and are only used in very important matters.

Sweden is known to have been hit by gang violence for more than a decade and has so far had the highest levels of lethal gun violence in the European Union per capita by 2023, the last year which has comparable statistics.

Violence has overshadowed all else in Swedish politics, prompting the revival of the ruling far-right coalition in 2022 with support from the far right. The launch of the coalition ended eight years of power of the Social Democratic Party, Sweden's dominant political party since the 1930s.