BRUSSELS — Senior EU officials warn that a sweeping new plan to arm the bloc's police agency, Europol, for the AI era could threaten Europeans' privacy. As cybercriminals, terrorists and spies weaponize artificial intelligence for scams, extortion and cyberattacks, Brussels is betting on expanding Europol’s AI powers — the agency that has coordinated European police intelligence since 1998 — to help combat the risks. While “we need a stronger Europol, with the resources and capabilities to effectively support national law enforcement authorities,” Keller said.
That “must go hand-in-hand with strong democratic oversight and robust safeguards for fundamental rights and data protection.” Plans for a “transformative evolution” of the The Hague-based agency, announced this summer, would double its budget to €3 billion and give Europol a hands-on role in fighting new threats, with access to more data and advanced technology. The move reflects the reality that, as developers and politicians debate whether the development of frontier AI models should be slowed down, law enforcement is already facing criminals who are using the latest technology. But the plans are also raising questions about privacy and governance, igniting a fierce debate over how far-reaching police agencies' powers should be to keep people safe from and with AI.
Wojciech Wiewiórowski, who runs the data protection authority that supervises all EU agencies and institutions, said he is “absolutely in favor” of empowering Europol to use data and new AI-powered tools, but there “has to be oversight.” “When I hear about strengthening Europol, changing the scope of activities, and really very substantive investment in the agency itself, I'm very happy as a citizen,” he said. This is a significant challenge for law enforcement.” Europol, which employs more than 1,700 people, was conceived as a central clearinghouse that works with European police agencies to help understand and share potential evidence and other information linked to criminal investigations. Under the new plans, the EU now counts on the agency to develop new ways to use AI to sift through mountains of available data and help national police crack cases in real time.
But while both law enforcement and criminals can tap into the latest advances in artificial intelligence, only cops are required to uphold democratic principles. As Europol takes on a potentially massive new volume of information, privacy protection may be the principle most at risk. Such tensions are top of mind for Ebner, who is now all but certain to lead Europol for the next four years.
He said that the police are weighed down by legal checks when trying to use AI. Ebner said timely access to electronic evidence is crucial to best exploit AI's emerging power. "It can help investigators filter large volumes of digital evidence, connect information and identify actionable intelligence," he said.
"AI can be used as a multiplier for investigators and analysts and can give them more time to interpret evidence." Debates about how police gather and process people’s data often pit security and privacy against each other. But Ebner told police at a conference in Lisbon last month that Europol shouldn't cross a line where “collecting data becomes an objective in itself, technology becomes a justification for its own use, or urgency becomes an excuse for abandoning safeguards.” Also addressing police from across Europe who'd gathered in Lisbon, Wiewiórowski, the European Data Protection Supervisor, said the Commission's proposal “officially lays down the foundations for AI-powered, data-driven policing in Europe.” Wiewiórowski's EDPS has previously reprimanded Europol for its data-gathering practices, and has pushed back against a previous proposal to expand Europol’s remit. He has cautioned that the proposal to revamp Europol poses serious privacy risks, and would allow the agency to retain data on a “vast” number of people with no links to criminal activity “for an extensive and unspecified period of time.” The proposal does preserve the EDPS’s role in supervising Europol, but Wiewiórowski said it doesn’t match Europol’s expansion with a similar boost to EDPS powers or resources.
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