By Apolline Rolland, Cybersecurity and Strategic Intelligence Consultant at Forward Global
The EU is developing a framework to govern data-driven policing, focused on safeguarding individual rights and ensuring transparency, accountability and proportionality. Data protection and privacy form the cornerstone of this regulatory apparatus, which includes the Law Enforcement Directive 2016, the Europol Regulation and the General Data Protection Regulation. However, these regulations failed to anticipate the rapid growth and risks associated with emerging technologies such as AI, leading to the development of the Artificial Intelligence Act 2024 with a sense of regulatory urgency. Despite this progress, the framework could still be improved to better support Data Protection Officers in supervising data-driven policing activities in the EU.