According to police spokesperson Michael Beyer, they will be deployed "at crime-relevant times in the late evening and night hours" this Saturday and Sunday.

The mobile video masts are equipped with real-time cameras. Images are monitored by trained staff at the control centre who send a patrol car if they see trouble brewing. The police state that they are strictly following Police Act guidelines in their surveillance. There is neither area-wide nor round-the-clock surveillance: The Police Act of North Rhine-Westphalia, which was amended in 2018, allows cameras to be used to prevent crime "if criminal offences have been repeatedly committed there and the type of area makes it more likely for crimes to be committed". This is how paragraph 15a describes it.

Sensitive areas such as flats or outdoor terraces of cafés are pixelated. During demonstrations, the cameras would be switched off. Recordings are deleted after two weeks if they are not necessary for investigations. The police chief can order observation if they can justify that further offences are to be expected.

The cameras have already been used several times in the Bonn city area, on 105 days last year. The police used them particularly often last year on the banks of the Rhine in Bonn (69 days), where there were lively gatherings of larger groups with confrontations as a result of the pandemic. The authorities have also monitored the area in Poppelsdorfer Allee (36 days), Koblenzer Straße (36 days), Poststraße (32 days at Christmas market time), Beueler Rheinufer (21 days) and Hofgarten (twelve days).

Extending usage would be possible. The police chief has formally prepared the way with an order to be able to set up one of the systems on Bertha-von-Suttner-Platz. Spokesperson Beyer said: "Video surveillance at Bertha-von-Suttner-Platz is not intended in the foreseeable future, even if the formal requirements for it exist." In addition to the number of offences, the severity of the offences also plays a role in the assessment.

Bertha-von-Suttner-Platz, to which the city administration also includes parts of Marthashof, Berliner Freiheit, Kölnstraße, Sandkaule and Belderberg, as well as Wenzelgasse, Brüdergasse and Oxfordstraße, is one of the areas with a high volume of offences. In 2018 and 2019, the police recorded one attempted homicide each. In 2020, 211 crimes were recorded there over the year. Last year, the number was slightly lower at 177 offences.

Basically, many people are out and about in the city centre at weekends and in the evening, immersing themselves in the nightlife. "We notice again and again that when drunken people meet, small things are enough to start a physical altercation," Beyer said. The later the evening and the more alcohol that has flowed, "the more serious the offences become". There is also theft, especially at night. Video surveillance in real time is "fit for purpose" according to previous experience and it contributes to the prevention of crimes. There is mainly positive feedback from the public about the video masts.

Part of the overall picture, however, is that State Data Protection Commissioner Bettina Gayk received a complaint against the use of video cameras by the Bonn police last year (the GA reported in January this year). As a spokesperson for the data protection authority explained, no decision has yet been made on the matter: "The NRW State Data Protection Commissioner has meanwhile extended the examination of mobile video surveillance by the Bonn police beyond the specific facts of the complaint to all mobile police video surveillance carried out in Bonn in 2021."

However, the evaluation of "the documents sent to us in this regard - with a delay - is currently still ongoing". A result will be available after the summer holidays at the earliest. In principle, the state data protectors are critical of the use of cameras in public spaces.

(Original text: Philipp Königs; Translation: Jean Lennox)