The Transparency Case
The “Transparency” case is part of StraLi’s ongoing work concerning facial recognition technologies and their application in criminal proceedings. This effort began with the “How to Save Face” project, funded by the Digital Freedom Fund, which led to the publication of two reports:
- “Building a litigation strategy to challenge the use of facial recognition technologies by law enforcement and judicial authorities in Italy – A study of the applicable legal framework at the national, international, and European levels, accompanied by relevant jurisprudence.”
- “Mapping the use of facial recognition technologies in Italy. A research on the practices of Police Headquarters, Public Prosecutors’ Offices, and Municipalities.”
The goal of StraLi’s Digital Rights Team is to obtain as much information as possible regarding the actual use of the SARI Enterprise system by the Ministry of the Interior. Other countries have already demonstrated the importance of transparency and are striving for clearer and more direct communication with the public.
The London Metropolitan Police and South Wales Police, for instance, regularly publish detailed reports online. These include the usage dates, durations, purposes, the number of faces in watchlists, total alerts, correct and incorrect matches, and any subsequent actions taken.
Similarly, the Dutch Police, in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request about their CATCH facial recognition system, decided to publish annual statistics, such as the number of searches, discarded results, and positive matches that led to identifications.
In Italy, general civic access was introduced by Legislative Decree No. 33/2013 to promote widespread control over public institutions’ functions and use of public resources. This legislation grants citizens the right to access data and documents held by public administrations to ensure transparency and encourage informed public debate.
StraLi’s Digital Rights Team, in collaboration with IrpiMedia, drafted a general civic access request, believing it was the only effective means to obtain data about the SARI Enterprise system.
The civic access request included five key questions:
- The number of searches conducted using SARI Enterprise in 2022;
- The number of operationally useful matches resulting from SARI Enterprise in 2022;
- The number of searches conducted using SARI Enterprise in 2023;
- The number of operationally useful matches resulting from SARI Enterprise in 2023;
- The minimum similarity percentage considered reliable for results generated by SARI Enterprise.
The questions aimed to address the lack of publicly available information from the Ministry of the Interior while avoiding any potential harm to public interest related to public order and safety.
StraLi, led by Attorney Alice Giannini, submitted 15 requests, one to the Ministry of the Interior and 14 to regional and interregional scientific police offices. These were forwarded to the Central Anti-Crime Directorate of the State Police, which provided an initial explanation of SARI Enterprise:
SARI Enterprise allows searches for a person’s face within the AFIS database of mugshots, ranking candidates by similarity to the searched face. Results are always verified by a specialized operator, and while these findings may assist investigations, they have no evidentiary value.
However, the Ministry denied access to questions 1 and 3, citing potential harm to public order and safety. Questions 2, 4, and 5 were also denied, with the Ministry explaining that SARI Enterprise does not produce “matches” but only generates similarity rankings that require further operator analysis.
StraLi submitted a review request to the Ministry’s Transparency and Anti-Corruption Office, emphasizing that the number of searches (questions 1 and 3) posed no risk to public safety. StraLi pointed out that such data would not reveal sensitive operational details, such as methods, equipment, or specific security measures.
To bolster its argument, StraLi highlighted examples from other countries where law enforcement agencies share data about facial recognition systems. Additionally, StraLi stressed the importance of public transparency, particularly concerning the use of EU funds for technologies intended to prevent and combat crime.
Recognizing the lack of a robust justification for the denial and agreeing with StraLi’s position that the requested data posed no public safety risk, the Transparency Office referred the matter to the Central Directorate for Scientific Police and Cybersecurity.
The Directorate ultimately provided the requested data, disclosing for the first time in Italy the number of searches conducted using SARI Enterprise:
- 2022: 79,362 searches
- 2023: 131,023 searches
This milestone represents a significant step toward increased transparency regarding the use of facial recognition technologies in Italy.