Antwerp Police are to coordinate a Europewide project aimed at better protecting Jewish communities across the EU. To this end the Antwerp Local Police Service will receive 1.5 million euro in funding. Antwerp police will also examine the role smart cameras equipped with AI could play in helping detect incidents of violence in Antwerp Jewish Quarter. However, the city’s police service is keen to stress that this doesn’t mean that smart cameras will be installed straight away.
Antwerp police investigate whether smart cameras equipped with AI could make the Jewish Quarter safer
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In Antwerp, the police service is to examine whether smart cameras equipped with AI could make the city’s Jewish Quarter safer. Thanks to artificial intelligence, violence could be detected and located faster. Artificial intelligence can be used interpret certain forms of behaviour as aggression and then inform the police enabling them to react more quickly. The police stress that they are not going to carry out a study into the use of face-recognition cameras.
The Antwerp Local Police Service spokesman Wouter Bruyns told VRT News “This doesn’t mean that this kind of camera will be installed in the Jewish Quarter from 1 January. We will spend 2 years examining what can help us protect the Jewish community. This includes cameras equipped with AI, but also training police officers and entering into dialogue with the Jewish community”.
Antwerp police are coordinating AEGIS, a project that aims to better protect Europe’s Jewish communities. Police services in Spain and Romania are also involved. Antwerp police are to receive around 1.5 million euro in funding for the pilot project.
During the AEGIS project Antwerp police will work closely with individuals and organisations from the Jewish community.