Interpol’s facial recognition database, in operation since 2018, made it possible to establish 2,431 matches in the investigations in which it was used during this period, the international police organization reported on Tuesday.
Interpol’s director of operational analysis, Cyril Gout, highlighted on Tuesday the progress of the international police agency’s action in promoting these facial recognition techniques, but insisted that “they are not enough.”
The person in charge spoke from the Lyon headquarters, in a day open to the media, on the occasion of the centenary of the organization, stressing that it is important to advance in the acceptance of these techniques by the Member States, but also by the population .
Cyril Gout noted that the organization collaborates with various actors, such as human rights organizations.
Asked about the possibility that the information made available to Interpol for visual recognition could be used by any country for surveillance in public spaces with cameras equipped with artificial intelligence for this purpose, Gout stressed that its biometric databases “are only accessible for Interpol”.
The reason is that these databases contain “sensitive information” and that the organization is a guarantor of compliance with all the conditions of use imposed by the countries that agreed to share them.
In some cases, these restrictions refer to the prohibition of placing it in the hands of other countries that are not considered trustworthy.
Interpol is also pushing for greater cooperation among its 195 member countries, including Portugal, to feed and leverage its two DNA databases, a project in which only 87 of them are currently involved.
The main reason for this low participation is the lack of technical or legal capacities in many countries, said the director of Interpol’s DNA databases, François-Xavier Laurent.
In total, the two available databases, one of fugitives and the other of people pending identification, contain 280,000 profiles.
Unlike other biometric parameters, such as fingerprints, DNA cannot be used for immediate identification, for example when crossing a border, as it requires a lot of time in laboratory analysis.
Using biometric data, DNA and other elements, Interpol launched last May a communication campaign, entitled ‘Identify me’, to try to identify the bodies of 22 anonymous women found in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, suspected of have been murdered. and who came to these countries from abroad.
Since then, more than 700 statements have been received from people who wanted to provide evidence and some of them could be identified, although the three countries in question have not provided more information while the investigation continues to clarify possible criminal responsibilities.
Given the success of the operation, Germany requested its repetition with the case of a five or six-year-old boy who appeared in the Danube, as it passed through Bavaria, drowned by a stone.
Interpol made the appeal public on August 29 and 33 testimonies have already been collected.
The international police organization intends to work, starting in 2024, in a similar way in unresolved cases in other regions of the world.
Source: TSF
