Facing Spillover Gang Violence from Sweden, Danes Look to FRT

Police in Denmark are planning to implement facial recognition technology in an effort to deal with an escalating problem with gang-related violence in neighboring Sweden. According to a report from Reuters, the technology will be used to speed up aspects of police investigations that are currently done manually.

In so doing, the Danes will echo the Swedes’ own efforts to address the issue domestically. Last fall, Sweden’s Justice Minister announced plans for a “camera offensive” in which 2,500 surveillance cameras would be added to the police toolkit, while the Swedish government proposed legal changes that would empower police to use AI-power facial recognition technology.

Sweden has suffered from an intensifying gang violence issue in recent years, which has spilled over into neighboring countries. Sweden has the highest per capita rate of gun violence in the European Union, with Stockholm’s gun-related homicide rate being 30 times that of London, England.

The country reportedly has about 14,000 active gang members, with another 48,000 thought to be loosely affiliated with gangs, according to a 2023 police report. An uptick in gang recruitment of Swedish teenagers in recent months has raised further alarms.

Source: Reuters

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August 13, 2024 – by Alex Perala