Without a legal basis for regular use, the police in Bavaria have been testing new police software for months using data from real people. Since March, the State Criminal Police Office has also been using real data, for example from the Bavarian police’s wanted list, the Interior Ministry announced on Thursday in Munich. However, the results would “not be used for police purposes,” but only for “internal review of the application.” Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) first reported.
In order to be able to use the “cross-procedure research and analysis platform” (Vera) regularly in investigations, the state government actually wants to initiate a change to the Bavarian Police Tasks Act. Recently, however, no draft had been submitted. According to the Ministry of the Interior, this is not necessary for test operations, said a spokesman. The Bavarian data protection law is sufficient.
According to the BR report, Bavaria’s data protection officer Thomas Petri initially knew nothing about the test operation. He also has doubts that there is a sufficient legal basis for this: it will be difficult, for example, if the police receive information about crimes through the tests. “If that is the case, then the police are subject to the so-called principle of legality,” Petri told BR. “That means they have to investigate these crimes. And then the test operation becomes a real legal problem because the police don’t actually have the legal basis to operate ‘Vera’.”
The Interior Ministry, however, said that Petri had already been “informed about the ongoing test phase with real data in a personal conversation” in March. A spokesman for the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office emphasized that the authority had also offered Petri to provide data protection documentation for the test use. The data protection officer only requested this on November 24th.
When asked, Petri told the German Press Agency: “I don’t want to completely rule out the possibility that the LKA President mentioned the test operation planned by the LKA in a personal conversation with me. However, I don’t have any meaningful documents on this.” He only found out about the specific test operation with “real data” from the BR and has therefore now initiated an examination.
According to the Interior Ministry, the State Criminal Police Office has its own testing system and a concept for who can access it there. A few of the manufacturer’s employees would work on the system on site, but they would not have access remotely.
Before the procurement, data protectionists had expressed concern that sensitive data could be diverted through the program of the controversial US manufacturer Palantir. The company had been financed by the CIA in the past and also counted the secret service among its customers. However, a check of the source code by the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology before testing did not reveal any abnormalities.
Other federal states use similar programs
The software is intended to help Bavarian investigators read different police data pools at the same time and create connections. The company’s similar programs are already in use in Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia. The Federal Ministry of the Interior, like other states, rejected its use in federal authorities in the summer – despite a purchase option negotiated specifically for this purpose by Bavaria.
The Union therefore planned to make a new attempt this Friday with an application in the Bundestag. The MPs should vote on whether the Federal Ministry of the Interior should be asked to approve the procurement and use of the software, for example at customs and the Federal Criminal Police Office. The AfD parliamentary group has also submitted a corresponding motion, which will be voted on on Friday.
Bavaria’s Digital Minister Fabian Mehring (Free Voters) cannot understand the excitement: “Typically German: Once again, data protection is intended to serve as a fig leaf for denial of the future. Instead of using digital innovations for the benefit of everyone, people worryingly indulge in bureaucracy and, in case of doubt, even prefer to let criminals go free Run.” Bavaria is no longer taking part.