Facial recognition technology represents the state of the art in modern criminal investigations. However, the legal position regarding its use in Europe remains unclear. This ambiguity is not because of a total lack of applicable norms. Rather, it occurs because the existing standards create a kind of legal patchwork distributed among European Union primary and secondary laws and norms from the Council of Europe. Although the recent European Commission proposal on a legal framework for artificial intelligence has clarified some issues, it has also added more complexity to an already unclear domain. Before launching an effort to build a specific set of norms for the use of FRT in criminal investigations, it is crucial to survey the norms already in place to avoid contradictions and overlaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]