According to Article 5(1)(h)(i) AI Act, the use of real-time RBI in publicly accessible spaces for law enforcement purposes is allowed , subject to strict necessity and the conditions in Article 5(2) -(7) AI Act, for the targeted search of victims of abduction, trafficking in human beings , or sexual exploitation of human beings, as well as the search for missing persons.
a) Targeted search for victims of three types of crimes
The scenario described in Article 5(1)(h)(i) AI Act seeks to assist law enforcement authorities to search for victims of three serious crimes.
A targeted search would involve the localisation and identification of victims. Three types of crimes
The targeted search for specific victims of three serious crimes are covered by the scenario listed in Article 5(1)(h)(i) AI Act: the abduction of, trafficking in, and sexual exploitation of human beings.199 If, for example , a child is kidnapped and there are concrete indications that the kidnapper intends to bring the child from one place to another by car, the police may use a real-time RBI systemfor the targeted search of that child , but it must define a perimeter of deployment and duration of use to identify the child.
b) Searching for missing persons
The first scenario also covers the search for a missing person.200
A distinction may be made between missing children and missing adults, since the voluntary disappearance of a missing adult will not always trigger a search . The applicable rules regarding missing children vary considerably from one Member State to another.201 In any event, Article 5(1)(h)(i) AI Act only allows the use of a real-time RBI system to search for missing persons for law enforcement purposes.
The disappearance of an adult does not always lead to a search of that person by police, as adults have the right to disappear. A search could be linked to the legal status of the person (‘under curatorship’), their health condition (a mental illness), the existence of a suicidal note, but also the departure without personal belongings. If the circumstances of the disappearance are a cause for concern, the disappearance may be filed with the police so that a search can start.
In some Member States , the search for a missing person may occur under an administrative procedure and not for law enforcement purposes. For example, where a vulnerable person is missing, but there is no suspicion of a crime or any other law enforcement purpose, the use of real-time RBI systems to search for that person would not be deemed to be for law enforcement purposes and would therefore fall under the rules for such use under the GDPR.