Field Notes

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Swedish real-time facial recognition law

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Sweden’s riksdag approved proposition 2025/26:150 in May 2026, enacting lag 2026:806 on the use of AI systems for real-time FR for law-enforcement purposes, in force 1 July 2026. The law implements the narrow exceptions the EU AI Act allows member states to carve out of its Article 5(1)(h) prohibition of real-time RBI in publicly accessible spaces.

What the law permits

The Police Authority and the Security Service may use real-time FR on public places only to locate or identify:

  • victims of abduction, trafficking, or sexual exploitation, and missing persons suspected of being crime victims;
  • a person posing a concrete risk of committing a crime against life or physical safety;
  • a person reasonably suspected of an EU AI Act Annex II crime punishable by at least four years’ imprisonment, for investigation or prosecution;
  • a person convicted of such a crime, to execute the sentence.

Use requires prior authorization by a prosecutor for preventive purposes or by a court for investigative purposes, limited to at most one month and a necessary geographic scope. In urgency, use may begin first with an authorization request within 24 hours. Each use must be reported to IMY, and a fundamental-rights impact assessment under AI Act Article 27 is required.

Police began testing recognition systems in June 2026 using footage from the national camera platform; the police describe the system as closed, with all data deleted after testing. Retrospective FR on recorded material was already in investigative use before this law.

Surveillance build-out context

The committee debate records the expansion that gives the law practical weight: police cameras grew from 948 in 2022 to almost 4,000 by the end of 2025, with a stated government target of 10,000 by 2029, alongside drones and plate-reading cameras. Permit processes under kamerabevakningslagen (2018:1200) were simplified by proposition 2024/25:93, and a July 2026 committee directive (dir. 2026:66) is reviewing camera surveillance further.

The masking counterpoint

Lag 2005:900 prohibits covering the face in a way that hinders identification at demonstrations or public gatherings only once a disturbance of public order has arisen or is imminent, with an exemption for religious coverings and penalties of fines or up to six months’ imprisonment. Face-covering is otherwise lawful in Sweden, and patterned clothing or makeup does not fall under the statute.

Relevance

This law and the camera build-out supply the Swedish demand context for Anti-surveillance apparel market and the legal frame for Adversarial clothing. Claims about police capability here should be rechecked as IMY reporting and the first authorization decisions appear, which the review date reflects.

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