Germany, Bavaria
Bavarian State Police
Data Integration and Link Analysis (Palantir Gotham), supplied by Palantir Technologies
OperationalJournalismPAI-6E8FC0C8
- Body
- Bavarian State Police
- Country
- Germany
- Area
- Bavaria
- Technology
- Data Integration and Link Analysis (Palantir Gotham)
- Supplier
- Palantir Technologies
- Programme
- VeRA
- Status
- Operational
In routine use by the named body, on the evidence of a public source. - Stage
- In use now
- Since
- December 2024
- Legal basis
- State police laws. On 16 February 2023 the Federal Constitutional Court held the enabling provisions in Hessian and Hamburg police law unconstitutional in their then form, ruling that automated analysis of stored data is itself an interference with informational self-determination requiring a proportionate legal threshold.
- Oversight
- Federal Constitutional Court (2023 ruling on the Hesse and Hamburg provisions; GFF constitutional complaint against Article 61a of the Bavarian Police Tasks Act pending); state legislature; state data protection authority
- Evidence
- Journalism
Named reporting by a reputable outlet - Source
- netzpolitik.org, 15 October 2026
- Last checked
- Record code
PAI-6E8FC0C8
Notes
Bavaria's VeRA (Verfahrensübergreifende Recherche- und Analyseplattform), built on Palantir Gotham, went live on 25 December 2024 after pilot operation, with roughly 100 uses reported by May 2025. The Federal Constitutional Court described the capability as able to generate new suspicions and information police had no prior grounds to hold, and in February 2023 struck down the Hesse and Hamburg provisions as drafted (1 BvR 1547/19).
Update, November 2026. netzpolitik.org (15 October 2026) reports that the VeRA contract runs until April 2027 with up to four one-year extensions, that Bavaria wants to extend it by at least a year and talks with Palantir are under way, and that costs total about 25.3 million euros (22.2 million licence and implementation, 430,000 for a Fraunhofer study, about 0.5 million maintenance and operation, over 2 million for data-source connections). The Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (GFF), with the Chaos Computer Club, has brought a constitutional complaint against Article 61a of the Bavarian Police Tasks Act, which permits the data analysis; the complaint document published by the GFF is dated 23 July 2025, and the GFF reports no ruling. Bavaria is quoted by netzpolitik.org as saying it cannot do without "die wertvollen Analysefähigkeiten" that VeRA offers, while aiming to become digitally more independent in the long term.
Data Integration and Link Analysis (Palantir Gotham) elsewhere in Germany
See them in the tracker| Deployment | Country | Supplier | Since | Status | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hessen PoliceData Integration and Link Analysis (Palantir Gotham) | GermanyHesse | Palantir Technologies | 2017 | Operational | |
| North Rhine-Westphalia PoliceData Integration and Link Analysis (Palantir Gotham) | GermanyNorth Rhine-Westphalia | Palantir Technologies | 2019 | Operational |