Bodycams for the police have been a heart project of the CDU for years. Most recently, she linked her consent to the household to the cameras. Now they should come – but with restrictions.
Erfurt (dpa/th) – After years of discussion, there is an agreement on the use of bodycams for Thuringian police officers. Accordingly, the police are to be equipped with the cameras in the future, but are not allowed to film in apartments. However, recordings in work, operating and business premises should be allowed. The agreed specialist politicians of the CDU and the red-red-green minority government on Thursday, as both sides announced. The agreement is expected to be passed in Parliament next week.
Bodycams are cameras that emergency services wear on their bodies, for example to be able to take pictures of attacks against them to preserve evidence. The CDU had long called for the introduction of bodycams in the Free State and linked its approval of the 2022 budget to this, among other things. A total of 600,000 euros have already been earmarked for the cameras in this year’s budget.
As early as January, the specialist politicians had agreed that the bodycams should not only record images, but also sound. In addition, the police should also be able to use the so-called pre-recording function. A 30-second period of time is continuously recorded and overwritten again and again. Only when recording is activated is this period of time also saved permanently.
The CDU domestic politician Raymond Walk said: “This is a good day for our officials, as well as for security and transparency in action.” When the state parliament has created the legal requirements next week, he expects the Ministry of the Interior to implement them quickly. “The officials have had to wait far too long for the cameras, which have long been in use in all other federal states.”
The Greens were skeptical from the start as to whether the bodycam would really help to protect police officers and third parties from violence, said the parliamentary group’s domestic policy spokeswoman, Madeleine Henfling. Even now she is not convinced. “However, because we respect the agreements with the CDU parliamentary group on the budget, we will now create the legal basis for this in the Police Tasks Act.” It is important that the use of the cameras in apartments could have been prevented.
