Surveillance with drones and AI at stations and borders, random checks on migrants and more: Germany's police are getting more powers.
The German parliament has approved a new law that significantly expands the powers of the federal police. The use of drones, artificial intelligence and large-scale surveillance of telecommunications are now allowed. The law also makes it easier to detain migrants who are about to be deported. The government has argued that the law - the first new federal law on the police in Germany since 1994 - is essential to respond to technological developments and the changing nature of threats to public safety.
However, critics say the introduction of mass surveillance by the federal police means that technologies and databases that have so far only been used by the police forces of individual federal states or for individual operations can now be used systematically across the country.
Human rights activists and digital privacy activists believe the law poses a threat to democratic freedoms and could be challenged in Germany's Constitutional Court. Even if it does get that far, however, such lawsuits could drag on for years, while the new law could come into force in the meantime.
Real-time AI surveillance
Perhaps the most serious change is the now permitted use of AI-powered facial recognition in public places where the police have jurisdiction - airports, large train stations and along Germany's borders. The Federal Police will also be able to use "behavior recognition" with surveillance footage, and an AI-powered system will assess whether someone in a large group is behaving in a threatening or strange way - for example, if they are reaching out to someone. If such behavior is detected, the AI system will directly alert the police.
This has drawn much criticism from opposition parties in the Bundestag. "Imagine that your train is two hours late. You are angry and are pacing back and forth on the platform. For the AI, this could be "suspicious behavior" and it could decide that you are a pickpocket," said Clara Bünger of the Left.
Police associations welcomed the measure - partly because it could ease the workload of staff. But digital rights activists believe that it is an infrastructure for mass surveillance. "This is more or less the removal of anonymity in public places," said Michael Kolain of the Berlin Center for Digital Rights and Democracy. "We know similar methods from China, Iran, Russia. But this is extremely unusual for Germany."
According to Markus Thiel, professor of public law at the Police Academy in Münster, these concerns are justified, but he said that in such situations there is always a reflex of concern. "When the powers of the police increase, there are always organizations that are very critical. They are right to some extent, because especially with regard to AI-powered technologies, there is the possibility of serious violations of fundamental rights," he commented.
The main problem is that citizens have no way of understanding how their data is being read and processed by AI-powered surveillance technologies, and in Germany people are believed to have the right to access their data and to understand how it is being used. "That is why it is very important that such regulations are formulated in accordance with fundamental rights," says Thiel. "I can understand the criticism, but I also think that we need these tools. I see them as fundamentally problem-free, as long as they are well-designed."
Surveillance with drones and random checks on migrants
The new law also regulates how and when the federal police are allowed to use drones. This new legal framework is important, explains Till, "because the interference with fundamental rights is of course much greater when using a drone that can observe everything from the air than with a fixed camera." The new law allows the use of drones during particularly busy hours at train stations and near borders.
The law also specifies what the police are allowed to do if an unmanned aerial vehicle is considered a threat. This is considered important after last year's wave of drone overflights that caused disruption at airports in Germany and Europe. Police can now use signal jammers, electromagnetic pulses and even firearms during such incidents - although, as Till notes, only as a last resort.
Human rights groups are concerned that the new law gives the federal police greater powers to detain immigrants facing deportation and to conduct random searches, which Amnesty International said opens the door to racial profiling.
A legal battle with no end in sight
The new law could now be challenged in the Constitutional Court. However, this could take several years. In the previous case, the case lasted eight years.
This cycle is somewhat inevitable - state security forces will always demand more powers, and the Constitutional Court, ideally, will always strive to protect civil rights. What is missing is stricter control by lawmakers, says Michael Kolain of the Berlin-based Center for Digital Rights and Democracy. "My main criticism is that it is actually the job of parliament to ensure that fundamental rights are protected. But too often parliamentary parties simply approve without discussion what the government drafts."
In this particular case, he adds, there was not even time for a public parliamentary hearing on the issue of real-time AI surveillance, as this part was added by the ruling CDU and SPD parties just a few days before the vote. "Parliamentary groups simply wrote it into the law without consulting experts or even asking the data protection commissioner, and the legislative process should not work that way," said Colain.