Journalists with AI Tools Track Down German Militant Ahead of Police
Before German authorities could claim success, investigative journalists leveraged artificial intelligence (AI) to locate Daniela Klette, a 65-year-old member of the Red Army Faction—a leftist militant group—suspected of robberies and an attempted murder from 1999 to 2016, to fund her covert lifestyle.
While critics have questioned Germany's police effectiveness in sensitive cases, due to stringent privacy laws limiting AI tool usage, a German TV podcast managed to track Klette in advance.
Klette was apprehended in her Berlin home after a TV podcast employed the facial search service PimEyes with her wanted notice, identifying her recent life as a participant in Berlin's Afro-Brazilian community. Police eventually caught up with Klette thanks to a public tip in November, revealed after reporters shared their findings.
Her arrest, praised as a significant win by Lower Saxony's interior minister, Daniela Behrens, became tenser when explosives were found in Klette's flat.
Amid a surge in far-right politics, German law enforcement faces heightened scrutiny to effectively tackle extremism while still haunted by past oversights, such as in the case of the National Socialist Underground, a neo-Nazi group responsible for a string of murders before being exposed in 2011.
Police continue to search for two other Red Army Faction members. The group is known for its violent activities in the 1970s, including 33 murders, originally fueled by protest against the Vietnam War.
Klette was apprehended in her Berlin home after a TV podcast employed the facial search service PimEyes with her wanted notice, identifying her recent life as a participant in Berlin's Afro-Brazilian community. Police eventually caught up with Klette thanks to a public tip in November, revealed after reporters shared their findings.
Her arrest, praised as a significant win by Lower Saxony's interior minister, Daniela Behrens, became tenser when explosives were found in Klette's flat.
Amid a surge in far-right politics, German law enforcement faces heightened scrutiny to effectively tackle extremism while still haunted by past oversights, such as in the case of the National Socialist Underground, a neo-Nazi group responsible for a string of murders before being exposed in 2011.
Police continue to search for two other Red Army Faction members. The group is known for its violent activities in the 1970s, including 33 murders, originally fueled by protest against the Vietnam War.
