Artificial Intelligence Applied to Law Enforcement

13.11.2024

The Western Balkans Cyber Capacity Centre (WB3C) will host a training program on Artificial Intelligence (AI) Applied to Law Enforcement Agencies from November 13th to 15th, 2024, at its premises in Podgorica. This training is designed for leaders in law enforcement, the judiciary, and data protection agencies, focusing on the potential applications and implications of AI within the field of internal security.

Across three days, participants will engage with six modules, covering topics such as the role of AI in the private sector, generative AI, ethics and regulatory considerations, and specific applications of AI for law enforcement. Attendees will gain insights into how AI can enhance investigative processes while addressing relevant ethical and regulatory challenges.

This course meets a strategic challenge defined by the AI Act to ensure that artificial intelligence systems (AIS) are used in a controlled and responsible manner.

The objectives of this course are

understanding how AI systems work
understanding the geopolitical and legal issues
defining an AI strategy dedicated to the LEA
AI applications for the protection of citizens
future prospects and challenges

The workshop will be led by two distinguished experts on artificial intelligence and robotics applied in homeland security, Dr. Ysens de France and Brigadier General Patrick Perrot. Their expertise will provide invaluable insights into the intersection of AI, law enforcement and national security, guiding discussions on the application of technology in homeland security and the fight against cybercrime.

This three-day training is organized for security officers and police investigators from the Western Balkans, highlighting the importance of continuous education and training of law enforcement officers in emerging technologies in order to keep up with the evolving threats in the digital space.

Dr. Ysens de France is a distinguished legal scholar specializing in artificial intelligence (AI) and military robotics, particularly in the realm of Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS). She earned her doctorate in public law with a focus on the legal implications of autonomous military systems on the battlefield. Her research offers a forward-looking and interdisciplinary perspective on the challenges posed by technological advancements in defense.

In her professional career, Dr. de France has held several notable positions:

Professor of AI and Law: Since September 2020, she has been teaching at aivancity School for Technology, Business & Society in Paris-Cachan, where she imparts knowledge on AI and robotics law.
AI Mission Officer: Beginning in January 2022, she has served as an AI mission officer for the French National Gendarmerie, advising on the development and deployment of AI tools within the organization.
Lecturer in Digital Law: Since January 2022, she has been teaching digital law and AI law at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Dr. de France is also an expert member on AI and ethics at Hub FranceIA and serves as the Director of Prospective at the Institut Sapiens. Her extensive experience and research make her a leading authority on the intersection of law, AI, and military applications.

Brigadier General Patrick Perrot serves as the Coordinator for Artificial Intelligence and Data Strategy within the French Gendarmerie Nationale and as the AI Advisor to the Cyber Command at the Ministry of the Interior. Combining a strong academic background (PhD in AI) with extensive field experience, General Perrot has pioneered the application of AI in law enforcement, particularly in speaker and facial recognition and decision analysis, to enhance security and operational effectiveness. He is one of the architects of the AI strategy within the Gendarmerie Nationale, and his work continues to shape the integration of advanced technologies in national security.

In addition to his role in the Gendarmerie, General Perrot is:

An associate researcher at the Artificial and Natural Intelligence Toulouse Institute (ANITI), where he contributes to the Chair of Law, Accountability and Social Trust in AI, as well as to the Center for the Studies and Treatment of Radicalization.
The founder of the "AI and Security" Chair, which fosters cooperation between the Ministry of the Interior and universities and contributes to research on emerging security issues to prepare for the future.
A member of the EU AI Board Expert Committee, where he contributes to the application of the AI Act.
Co-chair of the EU Strategic Group on AI, which gathers 16 law enforcement agencies.

Additionally, General Perrot is active in several think tanks, serving as a member of the administration council of Hub France IA and as a security expert at the EUROP IA Institute.

Other news and events

Four days of OSINT and Dark Web training for Western Balkan law enforcement

This week at WB3C, police officers and prosecutors from the Western Balkans worked through a four-day practical programme on Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) and Dark Web investigations, delivered in cooperation with CIVIPOL and EU4FAST.
Led by WB3C training team Cyril CORRIAS and Jean-Pierre Bonnet, the course focused on the practical skills needed to collect and analyse publicly available information in support of Internet investigations — from identifying potential threats and gathering digital evidence to producing actionable intelligence.

The programme moved progressively through the fundamentals of Internet investigations and evidence preservation, protection and anonymisation techniques, social network investigations, online checks and surveys, and safe navigation of the Dark Web, combining each area with practical exercises. Participants also worked on approaches to data collection and the legal and ethical considerations linked to the use of digital information.

The training brought together law-enforcement practitioners from the WB6 who were attending a WB3C programme for the first time, expanding the network of professionals in the region equipped to work with open-source information in increasingly complex digital investigations.

Our thanks to our partners CIVIPOL and EU4FAST, and especially Marie Pierre MOSIN for supporint this programme, and to all participants for four intensive and highly practical days in Podgorica.

Minister Delegate Marie-Pierre Vedrenne Visits WB3C

On the sidelines of the BerlinProcess meetings held in Montenegro this week, we were honoured to welcome Ms Marie-Pierre Vedrenne, Minister Delegate to the Minister of the Interior, responsible for Citizenship.

Accompanied by the newly appointed French Ambassador to Montenegro, Ms Cécile Humbert-Bouvier, the Minister met with the WB3C team and learned more about the training programmes being delivered at the Cyber Centre this week.

She spoke with participants, WB3C trainers and external experts, including Reza Elgalai from the University of Technology of Troyes (UTT) and Major Marc TEROUANNE of the French Gendarmerie, who travelled to the WB3C specifically to deliver digital forensics training.

The Minister also met with Polish experts from NASK, who are working alongside Slovenia’s URSIV to deliver cybersecurity training focused on disinformation. She also engaged with CIVIPOL experts from the EU4FAST project, who are providing specialised cybercrime and OSINT training to strengthen the fight against migrant smuggling and irregular migration.

Cyber awareness, disinformation and OSINT: three connected perspectives on working safely with information

This week at WB3C, participants from public institutions across the Western Balkans are looking at the information environment from three different but closely connected perspectives: cyber awareness, disinformation and open-source intelligence (OSINT).
The training is delivered by Marcin Napiórkowski, Sylwia Adamczyk and Jakub Orzeszek from NASK – the Polish Research and Academic Computer Network, combining practical cyber hygiene with an understanding of how information is manipulated, verified and analysed online.
The first part of the course focuses on cyber awareness in both private and professional environments. Participants examine common threats from an end-user perspective, incident reporting, protection of email and social media accounts, and the security practices that organisations can put in place to reduce everyday exposure.
From there, the discussion moves to disinformation and the mechanisms that make it effective: filter bubbles, cognitive biases and techniques such as false context and cherry-picking. An important part of the work is not only recognising manipulation, but understanding how institutions can respond and communicate when misleading information begins to affect their reputation or the audiences they serve.
The OSINT component then takes participants into the practical work of finding, verifying and evaluating information from open digital sources. Search techniques, social media and visual-media analysis are combined with exercises in identifying disinformation and checking the reliability of what has been found.
There is also another side to OSINT that is sometimes overlooked: protecting the analyst. Participants are introduced to OPSEC methodologies and operational anonymity, looking at how research can be conducted without unnecessarily exposing the analyst, the organisation or the investigative workflow.
Bringing these three areas together is particularly relevant for public institutions. The same digital environment in which staff communicate and work is also the environment in which information is collected, manipulated, amplified and investigated.
By the end of the course, the objective is therefore not simply to know more tools or terminology, but to be better able to recognise threats, question information, verify sources and work more securely online.
Gilles Schwoerer, our Programme Director, greeted the participants and thanked our partners in URSIV, Urad Vlade Republike Slovenije za informacijsko varnost for funding this training and its continued support to WB3C activities.