Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) – After the recent judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court, the SPD wants to know whether North Rhine-Westphalia is threatened with “an unconstitutional grave of millions” because of new data analysis software for the police. NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) must explain as soon as possible what consequences he draws from the gossip for regulations in Hesse and Hamburg, the SPD faction demanded on Friday in Düsseldorf.
The background is a decision by the Karlsruhe judges on Thursday. The Federal Constitutional Court thus made strict requirements for the use of software that analyzes large databases when searching for criminals. The overly lax regulations in Hesse and Hamburg were declared unconstitutional.
NRW also uses the software. Bavaria is currently working on the introduction – as a pioneer for other states and the federal government. The Free State has concluded a framework agreement with the US company Palantir so that all other police forces can adopt its program without additional procurement procedures.
North Rhine-Westphalia has purchased Palantir software for 39 million euros and trained officials to use it – the interior committee of the state parliament now has to clarify whether the expenditure is based on a miscalculation, demanded the domestic political spokeswoman for the opposition faction. “The minister cannot and must not ignore the verdict from Karlsruhe.”
The program trawls the various police databases to discover cross-connections that investigators might otherwise never notice. This should help the police to track down potential perpetrators before they can commit a crime. In principle, this is also a legitimate purpose for the constitutional judges. However, the use of the software has so far been permitted in far too many cases that also affect the data of non-participants.
The judgment relates exclusively to data analysis for the preventive fight against criminal offenses. Journalists, lawyers and activists appeared as plaintiffs. In the fall, the Society for Freedom Rights had filed a third constitutional complaint about the NRW software. However, this was not taken into account in the procedure.
