Overview
- On Monday the Federal Ministry of Transport signalled it is open to examining a change to the Straßenverkehrsgesetz to enable nationwide use of so‑called handy‑blitzer.
- The federal states have formally pushed for a uniform, technology‑neutral federal rule so that each Land does not create differing laws for automated phone‑use detection.
- The MonoCam system, developed in the Netherlands and in regular use in Rheinland‑Pfalz since April 2025, uses a high‑resolution camera plus AI to flag likely handheld phone use for manual police review.
- Key legal questions remain unresolved, including which images may be captured before an offence is confirmed, how long data can be stored, how flagged images are handled, and what deletion safeguards will apply.
- Authorities argue automated detection could close enforcement gaps highlighted by the ADAC’s estimate of about 400,000 recorded handheld‑phone offences per year, but privacy and procedural rules will shape how broadly the systems are rolled out.