Civil Liberties at Risk as Police Leverage AI without Adequate Protection

By Netvora Tech News

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The Scientific Advisory Board for Police (WARP) has warned that the civil liberties of citizens are not adequately protected when the police use artificial intelligence (AI). The advisory board is calling for urgent and necessary adjustments to the legislation governing the collection and processing of data, as well as the establishment of an evaluation committee for police data. "The time of freewheeling experimentation is over," WARP stresses. The board provides requested and non-requested advice to the police chief based on scientific insights and provides clarity on societal issues related to police functioning. According to WARP, the developments in data collection and AI usage are moving rapidly, posing significant challenges for police work. This creates a tension between, on the one hand, the right to privacy of citizens and, on the other hand, the opportunities for crime detection. The advisory board notes that there is no adequate legal framework for data-driven work in the police, leaving the civil liberties of citizens insufficiently protected. "In addition to the need to adjust the legislation, more clarity is needed on what the police is doing to ensure that AI innovations are socially responsible," WARP emphasizes. The board highlights the risks of dependence on private parties and the lack of order in data management. It argues that knowledge of data and AI applications, as well as their potential societal consequences, is still insufficiently anchored at the police. Furthermore, WARP believes that a critical digital mindset within the police should be a basic skill, and that more empirical research is needed on the effectiveness of the technologies used by the police in the field of data and AI. Moreover, the police must publicly declare that they do not have the ambition to predict criminal behavior at the individual level. "The risks of this are too great," warns the advisory board.