{
  "record": {
    "id": "8568798e-fa76-4c01-82ed-111c11dd2c36",
    "code": "PAI-8568798E",
    "force": "Polizeidirektion Görlitz (Saxony Police)",
    "country": "Germany",
    "country_code": "de",
    "is_country": true,
    "region": "Görlitz, Saxony",
    "technology": "PerIS covert camera system with facial recognition and number plate capture",
    "technology_slug": "retrospective-facial-recognition",
    "vendor": "",
    "vendor_slug": "",
    "programme": "",
    "status": "operational",
    "stage": "in-use",
    "evidence": "parliament",
    "evidence_is_claim": false,
    "since": "",
    "legal_basis": "The Saxon police cite sections 100h and 163f of the Code of Criminal Procedure for their uses; Berlin prosecutors relied on sections 98a and 98b for the Berlin real-time case (netzpolitik.org, 12 July 2024). The Saxon data protection commissioner says these powers do not cover such scans. Section 59 of the Saxon police law, which allowed biometric video surveillance against cross-border crime, expired at the end of 2023.",
    "oversight": "The Saxon data protection commissioner, Juliane Hundert, said she had not been told of the use, called it unconstitutional and asked police and prosecutors not to apply for such measures (netzpolitik.org, 7 June 2024 and 8 October 2024).",
    "notes": "An answer of the Berlin Senate Department for the Interior of 25 April 2024 to a written question by Niklas Schrader (Abgeordnetenhaus Drucksache 19/18 874) states that, at the request of the Berlin public prosecutor, the Görlitz police directorate (Saxony) provided as official assistance a system of high-resolution cameras, with one vehicle deployed, whose images are scanned with facial recognition software and compared with each other, and which recorded passing vehicles with legible plates, drivers and passengers. It was used in two Berlin investigations, one into serious gang theft in international vehicle trafficking and one into a serious robbery of a petrol station, with one confirmed identification at the time; locations and times were withheld. netzpolitik.org (12 July 2024), publishing the Saxon data protection commissioner's reply to a complaint, reports that the Görlitz police used automated facial recognition on video recordings in 21 investigations with the stationary and mobile versions of PerIS (Personen-Identifikations-System), which they bought in 2020, and that the analysis was retrospective in all but the Berlin case. netzpolitik.org (8 October 2024), citing the Sächsische Zeitung, reports that the Saxon interior ministry had dropped the real-time function 'until further notice' while defending the system. The articles link PerIS to the OptoPrecision group, but no source read names the supplier directly. No source after October 2024 on its use was found. The Saxon police law that entered into force on 1 July 2026 authorises further AI-supported video powers; no deployment under it was found.",
    "source": "Abgeordnetenhaus Berlin, Drucksache 19/18 874 (answer of 25 April 2024)",
    "source_url": "https://pardok.parlament-berlin.de/starweb/adis/citat/VT/19/SchrAnfr/S19-18874.pdf",
    "last_checked": "2026-11-05",
    "record_url": "https://www.policeainews.com/tracker/record/8568798e-fa76-4c01-82ed-111c11dd2c36"
  },
  "licence": "https://www.policeainews.com/data#licence"
}