EU police forces to develop common facial recognition database

According to Euractiv, a leaked Council document details efforts led by Austria to legislate at the EU level for the ‘building of a network of facial recognition databases that could be used and accessed by police forces across the bloc’. This report, obtained by the Intercept, examines whether the Prüm treaty, which contains rules for operational police cooperation between EU member states, should be expanded to include facial images. Under the current regime, provisions are in place only to permit the sharing of DNA, fingerprint and vehicle registration databases between participating member states.