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AI-Assisted Image Search for Human Trafficking Investigations

Safety & Security · Enforcement

What it collects

Sensitive personal information
Anonymized data
  • Open-source information about individuals, including images potentially depicting exploited persons, suspects, or missing persons sourced from publicly accessible online platforms.
Biometric
Anonymized data
  • Images of faces and bodies sourced from open-source information, processed by the image and object recognition capability. Facial recognition is built into the platform but is currently disabled for RCMP users.
Operational data
Anonymized data
  • Open-source information including text and other non-image data from publicly accessible sources, used to support investigation queries and contextual analysis.
Run by
Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)
Where
No fixed location
Kept
Not stated by the Helpful Places.
Shared with
Accountable organization, Vendor
Your copy
You cannot see the data it holds about you. What you can do

What it is for

Safety & SecurityEnforcement

Traffic Jam is an AI platform used by Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigators to locate and identify exploited individuals in human trafficking, missing persons, and child sexual exploitation cases. It uses image and object recognition along with advanced open-text search across open-source information. Facial recognition functionality is built into the platform but has been disabled by the vendor for RCMP users and is not currently in use. Members of the public affected by an investigation may have their images or information processed by this system.

What it collects and what happens to it

Data taken in

Sensitive personal information
Anonymized data
  • Open-source information about individuals, including images potentially depicting exploited persons, suspects, or missing persons sourced from publicly accessible online platforms.
Biometric
Anonymized data
  • Images of faces and bodies sourced from open-source information, processed by the image and object recognition capability. Facial recognition is built into the platform but is currently disabled for RCMP users.
Operational data
Anonymized data
  • Open-source information including text and other non-image data from publicly accessible sources, used to support investigation queries and contextual analysis.

Processing

Computer Vision
  • Image and object recognition is applied to open-source images to identify relevant visual content in human trafficking and child exploitation investigations.
Search & Retrieval
  • Advanced open text search capability allows investigators to query across open-source information to find relevant records, postings, and content.

What it does

Sensing (Perceptive AI)
Human decides
  • The system performs image and object recognition on open-source images to detect and surface relevant visual content for investigator review. Investigators make the ultimate determinations.
Understanding (Semantic AI)
Human decides
  • Provides advanced open text searches across open-source information to retrieve relevant content for investigators, who review and act on results.

Outputs

A recommendation or prediction
Anonymized data
  • The system surfaces relevant images, objects, and text results from open-source information as investigative leads or recommendations for RCMP investigators to review and act upon.

Run by

Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)
  • The RCMP deploys Traffic Jam to support investigators working on human trafficking, missing persons, and child sexual exploitation cases. GC employees are the primary users of the system.

Government of Canada AI Registry — Traffic Jam

Built by

Marinus Analytics
  • Marinus Analytics is the vendor that built and supplies the Traffic Jam platform. The vendor has disabled the facial recognition functionality for RCMP users.

Government of Canada AI Registry — Traffic Jam

Kept for

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

Shared with

Available to the accountable organization
  • Outputs and investigation results are available to RCMP investigators (GC employees) who are the primary users of the system.
Available to vendor
  • Marinus Analytics, as the vendor that developed and supplies the platform, may have access to system data and outputs. The extent of vendor data access is not specified in the register entry.
Not available to me
  • Individuals whose images or information are processed during an investigation do not have direct access to this data or to what the system has surfaced about them.

Stored

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

How to read the colours

Can it identify you?

Anonymized data
Data about people with the link to who is broken. Stripped of identifiers, blurred, aggregated, or noised so this system can’t reasonably tie a record back to an individual.
Pseudonymous data
Each person’s data is tied to a token (hash, ID, template) that lets this system recognise the same person across events, but the token itself doesn’t reveal a name. Reidentification is possible with extra information.
Identifiable data
The data either contains a direct identifier (name, address, account name, recognisable face or voice, plate number) or carries a token this system uses to look up legal identity during processing.

Who completes the loop?

Human decides
This mode suggests; a person decides what to do next. The AI is always advisory — a human is in the loop on every decision. Example: a triage tool ranks cases for a clinician who chooses which to see first.
Human executes
This mode decides; a person carries out the result. Example: an optimizer plans the day’s trash-collection routes, and drivers run them.
Autonomous
This mode decides and acts on its own. No person reviews each decision or carries out the resulting action.

Definitions from the DTPR standard. Amber is about your data, violet about who decides. The fuller the shape and the deeper the colour, the more identifying the data or the less a person is involved.

What you can do

Ask about this system

Questions go to the Helpful Places, not the vendor.

Your rights

  • Right to Be Informed of AI UseThe Government of Canada discloses the use of this AI system. The register entry indicates AI use is disclosed to GC employee users. Individuals who are subjects of an investigation and whose information is processed by this system may not be aware of its use; public disclosure is provided through the Government of Canada AI Register.
  • Right to Algorithmic TransparencyHigh-level information about how this AI system works is available through the Government of Canada's public AI Register. The register discloses the system's capabilities (image and object recognition, advanced open text searches), data sources (open-source information), and the status of the facial recognition feature.

Risks and safeguards

  • Civil liberties harmThe platform includes facial recognition technology that poses significant civil liberties risks including surveillance and misidentification of individuals. This functionality has been disabled by the vendor for RCMP users and is not currently in use. The system involves personal information and its use is disclosed to users (GC employees). Access is limited to GC employees conducting authorized investigations into human trafficking, missing persons, and child sexual exploitation.
  • Reputational harmImage and object recognition applied to open-source data carries risk of misidentification of individuals, which could cause serious reputational harm in an investigative context. The system is used as an investigative aid rather than a decision-making tool; human investigators review results before any action is taken. The facial recognition feature, which would heighten this risk, is currently disabled for RCMP users.