State of Brandenburg: Future of license plate recognition uncertain

Since its introduction, data protection experts considered the automatic license plate recognition carried out in the state of Brandenburg to be highly critical. Additional legal concerns ensured that the questionable police method was stopped. Whether and when it will return is now up in the air.

Brandenburg’s interior minister is in favor of reintroduction

While many legal experts view automatic license plate recognition as a questionable instrument of law enforcement power, the state’s politicians see things differently. In particular, the interior minister of the state of Brandenburg, Michael Stübgen (CDU), still thinks every amount of the procedure. Thus he said to dpa:

“If our police are to successfully fight and punish organized crime and drug smuggling, they also need the necessary resources for this”

Nevertheless, he also knows that the questionable method is too far-reaching. Effectively, however, it can still be after slight restrictions. Stübgen goes on to say:

“The possibility of recording would be limited, but still an important aid to the work of the police.”

Help with known criminal case

The designated police method known as “Kesy” gained sad notoriety mainly because it was used in the Rebecca missing person case. In 2019, the girl of the same name, who lived in Berlin, disappeared without a trace from one day to the next. With the help of Kesy, conspicuous vehicles were to be identified and possible abduction scenarios developed. In its original form, license plate recognition offered two different possibilities. On the one hand, Kesy can be used to filter for specific criminals and their license plates. Alternatively, however, it is also possible to record all license plates, whether of criminals or innocent citizens, en masse.

It was probably the unlimited recording of non-criminals in particular that brought the Brandenburg data protection commissioner onto the scene in 2020. Dagmar Hartge summarily declared this procedure inadmissible. The police responded by adjusting the duration of data storage. It was regulated to a maximum of a quarter of a year. The adapted form of license plate recording could then be used without any problems until the summer of 2021. However, a new version of the Code of Criminal Procedure (StPO) then came into effect, which no longer considered the Brandenburg police’s practice a legal means.

StPO requires rewrite of license plate recognition

As mentioned at the beginning, Interior Minister Stübgen does not want to part with the instrument of license plate recognition at all. He said that this method is too target-oriented. However, an application of this practice is currently unthinkable due to the new version of the StPO. Accordingly, adjustments would have to be made. This is currently the subject of intense discussion between the coalition partners CDU, SPD and the Greens. Stübgen says in this regard:

“We therefore want a state law regulation. There goes only a reduced approach, which we have worked out very thoroughly. It is not the old Kesy, but comes very close to the use in security.”

On the part of the Greens, it is clear that they do not think too much of their coalition partner’s adherence to license plate recognition. Thus, the interior policy spokeswoman of the state parliamentary group, Marie Schäfer, expresses herself as follows:

“In our critical attitude to the use of Kesy in recording mode has not changed”

Differently it looks at the other coalition partner, the SPD also not. Inka Gossmann-Reetz, interior policy expert of the state parliamentary group, says namely:

“With regard to the recording mode of the Kesy system, a weighing of proportionality must take place with regard to the permanent recording and storage of data versus investigative successes of the police”

On the part of the opposition AfD parliamentary group, however, CDU-friendly tones come. Thus, according to Lena Kotré, spokeswoman for domestic policy, the party does not want to reject the license plate recording across the board:

“Especially with regard to Schleierfahndungen as well as investigations in the field of organized crime outweigh the advantages in the application”

We are curious whether and in what form the license plate recognition will continue to be applied in the state of Brandenburg. It is clear that a blanket license plate recognition interferes too much with the data protection rights of a blameless citizen.