On May 11, the European Parliament will vote on amendments to the law on artificial intelligence (AI ACT) that will regulate the use of AI in various areas of life. However, human rights organizations are urging deputies to ban the use of AI for predictive policing, which can reinforce discrimination against minorities.
Predictive policing is a system that uses AI to analyze large amounts of data and identify potential offenders or victims of crimes. However, this technology has been criticized for often misidentifying black individuals as criminals, which can lead to increased racism and profiling in the police.
Fair Trials, an organization supporting the proposed amendment CA 11 to AI ACT, is calling for the banning of predictive policing in all EU countries. If passed, this will be the first ban of its kind in Europe.
According to Fair Trials, the police also monitor people in the vicinity using people recognition systems, treating minor behaviors as “suspicious” and using them as an excuse for interrogation, stopping, and searching individuals. The police’s powers to stop and search the population have been criticized in the UK, where they are reportedly used disproportionally more often against ethnic minorities.
From April 2020 to March 2021, the British police stopped and searched 52 black people for every 1000 people, while the number for whites was 7.5. Mixed race individuals were stopped and searched at a rate of 17.5.
Fair Trials also fears that the use of this technology will affect other vulnerable communities such as the working class, where it will most likely be used. Additionally, AI-supervision technology and other automated police systems undermine fundamental rights such as privacy and the presumption of innocence before guilt.
The proposed amendment CA 11 prohibits “discriminatory biometric categorization, predictive policing, technology recognition of emotions, which represents unacceptable risks, and mass data collection for biometric databases.”
Fair Trials says the amendment is supported by Amnesty Tech, Human Rights Watch, the Council of Colleges and Lawyers of Europe, and the European Law Association. The organization also adds that over 50 such groups throughout Europe are pushing for changes in AI ACT.