Matthias Monroy

The German police are not yet allowed to do everything when it comes to facial recognition. Where is the technology being used and for what purposes?

The manhunt for suspected members of the former militant RAF (Red Army Faction) has reignited the debate about expanding facial recognition by the police. “It is now becoming clear how well police work would work if it was supported by technology, AI and facial recognition,” says Jochen Kopelke, chairman of the German Police Union (GdP). Kopelke is not the only one calling for the expansion of police powers – and thus the massive encroachment on fundamental rights through mass surveillance – Conservative politicians are also taking the opportunity to demand more video surveillance, more AI and more facial recognition for the police.

This involves searching for faces on the internet without cause, which the police – unlike the Office for the Protection of the Constitution – are not permitted to do for reasons of data protection. Within their own data biotope, however, the police are authorised to compare photographs and have had the necessary biometric technology at their disposal since 2008. This technology is provided by the Dresden-based company Cognitech.

The facial recognition system, abbreviated as GES, is operated by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and is also used by the state criminal investigation offices and the Federal Police. Searches can be carried out using still images from video cameras in public spaces or photos of suspected criminals (e.g. taken with mobile phones, if they have an appropriate resolution). Queries are then carried out in the Inpol database. This largest German police file is also managed centrally by the BKA for all police forces. It contains roughly equal amounts of data from identification procedures and applications from asylum seekers. In 2022, around 6.7 million images of 4.6 million people were stored there in a searchable format – a significant increase compared to the previous year, despite fixed deletion deadlines.

The use of the GES is also increasing every year. For example, the Federal Police alone more than doubled the number of hits when searching for people in the system in 2022: 2,853 people were identified with the help of the technology. It is striking that the number of searches by the Federal Police increased only slightly in the same period (from 6,181 in 2021 to 7,697 in 2022). This suggests that either the software has been significantly improved with an upgrade to a 3D process or the police have been better trained in its use. The trend is also evident in the federal and state criminal investigation departments, whose annual hit rate increased tenfold to 3,656 in 2021 compared to 2017. Allegedly, photographs from the registers of residents’ registration offices can also be used for police comparisons. Der Spiegel reported that the LKA Lower Saxony had anonymised images of the age group of the wanted person sent to it by all the offices in the federal state to search for the recently arrested alleged RAF member Daniela Klette and searched them using facial recognition software.

There are also repeated discussions in Germany about using facial recognition in real time. For example, it could be used to search for the around 700 missing children, suspected terrorists or criminals in hiding in public spaces. If the software reports a hit, the suspects could be stopped and checked immediately. In 2017, Deutsche Bahn and the Federal Police tested such a procedure at Berlin’s Südkreuz station – albeit without consulting “real” police databases. Deutsche Bahn and the police rated the project as successful, but critics pointed to a high rate of “false hits”.

Real-time face recognition modelled on the Südkreuz station has not yet been introduced anywhere in Germany. According to the state government in Saxony, a new surveillance system from the Görlitz police department is also only used retroactively, i.e. for subsequent manual comparison. A special commission wants to use this personal identification system (PerIS) to track offences in the area of property crime on the German-Polish border. The photographs taken are used to search police databases for people and vehicles that arouse suspicion among investigators.

In Görlitz, the PerIS consists of ten camera columns at junctions and at border crossings with Poland. Two mobile cameras are also used in police vehicles. In Zittau and “close to the border” on the B178 motorway, seven camera columns are also to be installed and two mobile systems purchased. So far, however, only one hit with faces and two hits with licence plates have been achieved in this way – as far as is known. The unprovoked video surveillance therefore primarily serves as a deterrent, confirms the Saxon police, calling it “law enforcement prevention”.

In principle, it is also possible to query police photographs abroad. In future, this will be possible simultaneously in large parts of Europe at the click of a mouse: The governments of the EU member states have agreed on a new version of the Prüm Treaty with the Parliament. This law from 2008 regulates the automated exchange of data between police and customs authorities and previously covered fingerprints and DNA traces; it is now being extended to include facial recognition.

Queries should be possible for the “prevention, detection and investigation of criminal offences”, the search for missing persons, the identification of human remains and in the event of natural disasters. The search is based on the hit/no-hit principle: first, a police authority can enquire whether information on a person shown in the photo is available in the police databases of another country. If there is a positive response, so-called “core data” can be requested. The Schengen states of Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein are also involved in the Prüm system, as is the UK, despite Brexit.

Following the example of the Treaty of Prüm, the US government is now also demanding access to the biometric data of police forces in Europe and is threatening to exclude countries from the visa-free travel programme to the USA if they fail to do so. The new regulation is known as the “Enhanced Border Security Partnership” (EBSP). Washington wants to have concluded a corresponding agreement with each government by 2027. The US Border Patrol will then be authorised to use facial images and fingerprints for border control, as well as for criminal prosecution and “counter-terrorism”. The procedure goes beyond the European Prüm framework: the exchange of “core data” on the persons concerned is to take place automatically within the framework of the EBSP after a hit, and not only after an official request or a judge’s reservation. Such pull access to national databases of another state is unusual and is not normally granted even “between friends”.

Published in German analyse & kritik.

Image: Recently arrested and alleged former RAF member Daniela Klette (Facebook).