What happened
Recorded child sexual abuse material offenses in Lower Saxony rose from 1,084 in 2015 to 7,981 in 2023. The data to review grew from 2.1 to 4.7 petabytes between 2019 and 2023. Since 2020 the police have used two AI tools, Kipo Analyzer and Tracebook Kipo, to pre-select and classify seized images. The state criminal police office (LKA) built them, and four other German states use them too. Lower Saxony's State Audit Office examined their use and reported on it in its annual report, presented to the state parliament on 10 June 2026. It concludes that the tools considerably reduced investigators' workload. It bases this on the Interior Ministry's evaluation of January 2025, in which users rated the software as easing their work. The auditor gives no figure. It also found that the legal basis for retraining the tools lapsed when their project status ended. It warns that without regular retraining the tools may stop working reliably, for example against new file formats or obfuscation.
Sources
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Report, by authors with no tie to the system.
Niedersächsischer Landesrechnungshof. Jahresbericht 2026 zur Haushalts- und Wirtschaftsführung, Beitrag 25, Kinderpornografie mit Künstlicher Intelligenz wirksam bekämpfen. Presented to the Landtag on 10 June 2026. Printed p. 171 (PDF p. 176). The office takes the workload relief from the Interior Ministry's evaluation of January 2025.
KI unterstützt die Polizei bei der Aus- und Bewertung von Bildmaterial. Dies führte zu einer erheblichen Arbeitsentlastung.
Den Einsatz der KI-Software bewerteten die Betroffenen als arbeitserleichternd. Die KI-Lösungen führten zu einer deutlichen Zeitersparnis und Entlastung.
Ohne regelmäßiges Nachtrainieren besteht die Gefahr, dass KI-Lösungen nicht mehr verlässlich arbeiten.
Details
AI system
- Workflow
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The police used the tools from 2020 to pre-select and classify seized image material for review. The LKA developed the tools and deployed them across Lower Saxony, and users received special training. The police trained the tools on a dataset from a criminal case that the prosecutors released for training.
Follow-up
- Conditions for replication
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The tools must be retrained regularly to cope with new file formats, faulty face recognition and obfuscation. A legal basis must exist for training the tools on data from criminal cases.
Entry details
- Sector
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Policing / child sexual abuse investigations.
- Purpose
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The Landeskriminalamt Niedersachsen built Kipo Analyzer and Tracebook Kipo to pre-select and classify seized image material as likely child sexual abuse material for investigators to review.
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model, release, provider, role, configuration, inputs and outputs, autonomy, human oversight, AI contribution, beneficiaries, reach, distribution and access, duration, every measurement question, every money question, ownership and control, dependencies, cross-border connections, geopolitical implications, replication attempts, availability, institutional decision, grounds, action and result, success criterion, every evidence question, observed or intended, alternative assessments, related entries, other identifiers, category mappings.
Cite this record
Peter H. Vartanian. (2026). Kipo Analyzer eases Lower Saxony police review of abuse images (AIBD-1143). Artificial Intelligence Benefits Database, edition of 1 November 2026. https://petervartanian.xyz/aibd/records/AIBD-1143.html (archived at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/AADSII, version 7.0)