German police use facial recognition in terrorism cases

According to a draft law by the Interior Minister, the German police are allowed to use facial recognition software to search for suspected terrorists and serious criminals. Nancy FaeserA ministry spokesman confirmed this to dpa on Friday.

The authorization will be extended to the Federal Criminal Police Office and the Federal Police, the spokesman said.

In the future, investigators will be able to compare Internet videos of IS members with images on social networks in order to draw conclusions about their whereabouts.

Law enforcement authorities have long demanded access to such resources. This demand received new impetus following the arrest in February of Daniela Klette, a former member of the far-left terrorist group Red Army Faction (RAF) who had lived in Berlin for many years under a false identity.

Before her arrest, a Canadian journalist had used a facial recognition program on the Internet to find older alleged photos of Klette and her dance groups in the capital.

The changes to the law, which still have to be approved by parliament and cabinet, will enable investigators to, among other things, carry out biometric comparisons with image data from the Internet and to carry out automated data analysis using artificial intelligence.

However, real-time facial recognition in public spaces – for example through video surveillance at train stations – is not planned, the ministry said.