The police will test special identification cameras on hockey fans. He does not plan to deploy the system in Prague

It is worth noting that the police are planning to deploy special facial recognition software during the upcoming hockey world championship. This week, the director of the Moravian-Silesian Police, Tomáš Kužel, drew attention to this. It is not yet clear what kind of camera system it will be, nor who will have access to it. As found out by Echo24, face recognition cameras are to be deployed only in Ostrava during the hockey championship. “The Prague police will not use such a system,” at least claims police spokesman Jan Daněk.

Preparations for the hockey championship are at their peak. The World Championship will start in Prague and Ostrava in two weeks. Hundreds of police officers will also supervise security in both cities during it. According to police chief Martin Vondrášek, the police “cannot afford to underestimate the security of the championship in any way” and are preparing primarily based on the experience of the last championship in our country nine years ago.

In this context, the Moravian-Silesian Regional Police Directorate organized an event this week at which they presented some of the measures during the hockey world championship. Regional police director Tomáš Kužel said, among other things, that the Moravian-Silesian police plan to use all available camera systems around the hall and in means of transport during the tournament. And in the fan zone there is also a special system enabling face recognition.

“A special software that enables facial recognition will be installed right in the fan zone,” police director Kužel said literally. He then added that police officers should not use these cameras for targeted searches of people, but mainly when dealing with specific cases and situations.

The Echo24 newspaper also contacted the Prague police with a request for a statement. However, according to the available information, it does not plan to deploy a system similar to the one operating, for example, at the Prague airport, in the hall or the surrounding area during the championship. “The Prague police will not use such a system,” said Prague police spokesman Jan Daněk. According to the police, measures in the capital are to be similar to those in 2015, despite the current security situation in Europe related to the conflict in Ukraine. “The security situation is continuously evaluated, including in the context of the war in Ukraine. There is currently no information that would speak of a specific security risk for the World Ice Hockey Championship,” added Daněk.

According to the Association for the Protection of Personal Data, the use of biometric cameras in public poses a high risk to the rights of the persons concerned, and the law requires the police to evaluate in advance and reduce the risks to an acceptable level. “In general, we understand the effort to increase security and spectator comfort and the effective use of resources and human capacities of the security forces. This technology can certainly contribute to that. However, its deployment must not come at the expense of the right to privacy, the right to the protection of personal data and other basic rights and freedoms,” František Nonnemann, vice-chairman of the association’s committee, told Echo24.

According to him, typical measures include, in particular, limiting the scope of data collected, i.e. delineating only a part of the premises, limiting the retention period, rapid deletion of unnecessary records, enhanced transparency and information of the persons concerned about processing and their rights, limited access to information, clear definition of the purpose of data processing and not using the obtained data for anything else.

According to the association, the public should have as much information as possible before the start of the championship. “When was the impact assessment carried out, what serious risks to the rights of individuals were identified and how are they being reduced, if and with what result was the Office for Personal Data Protection (ÚOOÚ) consulted, how can the affected parties exercise their rights, for what purposes will the records be and from the biometric data obtained by them are used and for how long and so on,” added František Nonnemann.

What kind of facial recognition camera system was the police director from the north of Moravia talking about? He did not specify a specific system. However, it could be a similar system, which has been available to the police presidium for a long time and which is called Digital image of persons. The program, which the police has been using in test mode for two years, uses artificial intelligence and is used more precisely for biometric recognition of faces on camera recordings and can compare them, for example, with a database of wanted persons with records of residents.

As Echo24 found out earlier, the Office for the Protection of Personal Data also started looking into the police facial recognition system last year. “We have asked the Police of the Czech Republic for an explanation, we have received their opinion and we are now assessing it,” said office spokesman Milan Řepka last summer. At that time, the office began to assess whether the system, launched on the basis of the police chief’s order in 2022, was being used by the police in accordance with the applicable rules and there were no violations of the law. Otherwise, the police could receive a fine of up to 10 million crowns. Even after half a year, the ÚOOÚ did not close the file related to the mentioned system. “The only thing I can say about the matter is that the inspection is underway,” the spokesman for the Řepka office told Echo24 this week.