Berlin launches AI video‑surveillance pilot in high‑crime districts

Berlin’s interior administration will start a pilot project this month that uses artificial intelligence to monitor public spaces with high levels of street crime. The system will first be installed at Kottbusser Tor and later expanded to Warschauer Straße.

The AI analyzes movement patterns rather than faces, displaying stylised stick‑figure silhouettes on police monitors. Human operators decide whether to intervene; the software only generates alerts for unusual behaviour. Interior Senator Iris Spranger emphasized that no biometric identification will be used.

The project, budgeted at €4.6 million through 2030, is subject to scrutiny by data‑protection officer Meike Kamp, who raised concerns about the explainability of algorithmic decisions. A tender for the system’s provider is to be finalised by the end of September, with testing slated to begin in December and run for about a year.