Honorable Members of the European Parliament,

The AMBER Alert Europe Foundation (AAEU), as an organisation addressing the issue of
missing children, closely monitors legal dossiers which are for the benefit of missing children
and for the search for missing children by law enforcement. We are aware of the deliberations
you held as well as of the current text on the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act. In regard of the
current AI wording, AAEU would like to advocate for sustaining the use of AI by law
enforcement for the purpose of the search for missing children as initially foreseen by the
EU Commission’s proposal article 5 by providing additional information for your discussions.

More than 250,000 children are reported missing each year within the European Union. This
equates to a child vanishing every two minutes. Every child reported missing is potentially at
risk of life. European data as well as FBI research demonstrate that 76% of abducted children,
who were found deceased, were murdered within the initial 3 hours of their disappearance.
This short time window underlines the race against time investigators are engaged in when
dealing with missing child’s cases.

Today, accurate timely information is the key to success in many areas. In missing children
matters, the availability and prompt processing of data are the two most pressing issues to
address. AI already helps to process large amounts of data and find patterns which are/can be
useful in missing person’s search. AAEU is convinced that AI used by law enforcement with
precaution, greatly contributes to successfully recovering missing children in the shortest
timeframe possible.

As stated in the current text of the AI Act adopted by LIBE Committee, remote biometric
identification systems can be used in publicly accessible spaces for the purpose of law
enforcement for crimes such as money laundering and corruption, with no prejudice towards
gravity of the latter. It should also be used for saving lives of missing children. Safeguarding
their fundamental right to life.

“The aim is to provide Europe with legislation with an ethical approach. To gain the trust of
citizens in these systems that affect and will continue to affect their lives”, as outlined by MEP
Brando Benifei, AI Act Co-Rapporteur. And what better way to gain the trust of citizens than
allowing AI to be used for the search of missing children?

Therefore, AAEU would like to call on the European Parliament to re-include in the AI Act text
the previous wording of Article 5 as proposed by the European Commission and consider
adding a reference and/or connection to the identification/triage of a risk for life.

Frank Hoen
Chairman and Founder
AMBER Alert Europe Foundation