Overview

• CDU state leader Manuel Hagel proposed amending the police law so municipalities could install AI-supported cameras wherever they deem necessary, not only in designated crime hotspots.
• He argues AI systems would flag specific patterns such as suspicious movements or weapons and that officers would review alerts rather than record everything continuously.
• Data-protection chiefs caution that continuous public monitoring raises identification and legal problems and that effectiveness hinges on staffing, with a Ludwigshafen anti-dumping pilot yielding only one fine over six months.
• Hesse’s model permits AI-assisted face searches only in Frankfurt’s Bahnhofsviertel for missing persons or terror suspects and requires a judge’s order for every query.
• Local moves are multiplying, from Tübingen’s bus-station plan facing a potential legal challenge by state privacy officials to Kaiserslautern weighing AI tools and Mannheim reporting strong public support for its roughly 70 cameras, while Green candidate Cem Özdemir has backed lowering hurdles without explicitly endorsing AI.