Switzerland, Geneva
Police cantonale genevoise
AI image classification in child sexual abuse investigations (model developed by an NGO)
OperationalParliamentary recordPAI-42169B71
- Body
- Police cantonale genevoise
- Country
- Switzerland
- Area
- Geneva
- Technology
- AI image classification in child sexual abuse investigations (model developed by an NGO)
- Supplier
- Not stated in the source
- Status
- Operational
In routine use by the named body, on the evidence of a public source. - Stage
- In use now
- Since
- Not known
- Legal basis
- The Conseil d'Etat says its use falls within the technical means of investigation provided for by the Swiss Criminal Procedure Code (CPP), and remains subject to the CPP and the cantonal law on information and data protection (LIPAD).
- Oversight
- According to the Conseil d'Etat, every result is checked by an investigator, and the Ministère public works jointly with the judicial police and is informed of the means used.
- Evidence
- Parliamentary record
Hansard, committee evidence, written answers - Source
- Conseil d'Etat de Genève, answer QUE 2402-A, 30 September 2026
- Last checked
- Record code
PAI-42169B71
Notes
In its answer to an urgent written question from Grand Conseil member Masha Alimi (QUE 2402-A, 30 September 2026), Geneva's Conseil d'Etat says the cantonal police use, locally, an AI model developed by a non-governmental organisation that specialises in combating child sexual abuse, to classify images. The government describes it as an aid to categorising large volumes of data, not as evidence or as automated decision-making. It says the data stay on police servers and that every result is checked by an investigator. The NGO is not named.
The question, which drew on a Tribune de Genève article of 28 July 2026, quotes the police's director of information strategy as saying that the force first used AI in 2019, starting in its work against child sexual abuse, and that the police cannot use facial recognition features in their software for lack of a legal basis. The answer names no other AI system.