The city administration, together with EnBW, wants to install a special form of video surveillance at Europaplatz. Since Europaplatz is statistically not a crime hotspot, normal camera surveillance is not permitted. EnBW therefore relies on a system that is intended to ensure data protection-compliant video surveillance in which people are automatically alienated.
We have reservations about the support of the project by EnBW, i.e. a company from the private sector. This must be put on a secure footing, especially if it is continued after the pilot phase. Our suggestion would be to consider a continuation by the municipal security service. Furthermore, clear criteria must be established for the pilot phase in order to be able to reflect and decide after the pilot project whether the use of EnBW’s technology has brought significant improvements for Europaplatz or not. It is also necessary to check, for example, the noise level is interpreted incorrectly or correctly (the noise level is recorded, but no sound, so it would be difficult to distinguish a scream from a loud laugh, for example).
We see an advantage of the technology in the actually completely anonymous form of recording, which was also classified as data protection compliant by the state data protection officer. The people are only dimly visible and identification is not possible according to our current status. However, the system makes it possible to identify possible dangers as they arise and thus to involve the municipal security service or the police at an early stage. This means that offenses can be prevented or cleared up at an early stage – which is not the case with classic camera surveillance, since the recordings are used more to preserve evidence.
Our group votes for the two-year pilot project with EnBW, taking into account the other arguments in our answer to the two other questions.
