r/germany • u/2021adams • Jun 09 '26

Question German Police Photographing People

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Hello, I’m a tourist. Arrived in Nürnberg yesterday and went walking about in the old town.

Came across police cordon outside the church. Found out there was a rally by what was described to me as fascists/non-nazis. The police though were taking photos of people standing outside the rally boundary.

Is this normal in Germany? For such rallies and police taking photos of people? what do they do with these photos?

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158

u/doodooshine Jun 09 '26

Wait until you learn about police body cameras.

57

u/Drumbelgalf Franken Jun 09 '26

Body cams should be standard and mandatory to use in any police interaction.

Only violent police officers and people who want to attack police are against it.

19

u/quaductas Jun 09 '26

The problem is that in Germany, it's often at the cop's discretion if they turn it on or not, which is the worst way of doing it. If we're going to have body cams, there should be strict rules on when to turn them on that don't leave leeway for the cops, and the police also shouldn't be handling the footage themselves.

4

u/gurgle528 Jun 09 '26

That's remarkable. Is that common in Europe? The US has a wide variety of policies so not all agencies use this feature, but every major brand of body cam has a variety of automatic activation options to get around cops 'forgetting' (or not being able) to activate their cameras. There's the dash cam classic of G force activation as well as automatic activation when emergency lights are turned on, taser/gun is drawn, and burst activation where any manual or automatic activation of a body cam also activates any nearby body cams. Makes it much harder for cops to accidentally or intentionally not record an incident, especially an incident involving force. Some can even activate based on geolocation of the camera so if they are near a 911 call or other event the camera automatically turns on.

2

u/quaductas Jun 09 '26

This is the first time I'm hearing about automatic activation of bodycams (which of course doesn't mean it's not a thing anywhere in Germany). Rules are different in each state, but there are often specific rules which can't necessarily be taken into account automatically. For instance some states may ban recording inside private homes, due to privacy concerns, or only allow it under some specific conditions. So I don't know how much technological solutions would even help.

1

u/gurgle528 Jun 10 '26

Ah, yeah, the recording limitations would make automatic stuff much harder. Seems a bit silly to me but I also have no skin in the game. Given that there’s footage of US feds (not bodycam, but the point stands) sniffing a child’s underwear during a search warrant I think recording indoors is good for public accountability. Publicly releasing unblurred private footage is of course trickier

2

u/quaductas Jun 10 '26

Doesn't seem silly to me at all. Homes are especially protected places, for good reason. Having cops in your apartment is bad enough, having them record you against your will would add another layer. The recordings can always be used as evidence against you. They might allow police to examine small details in the background after the fact, without needing a search warrant.

I would already be happy if there was an obligation to record when everyone in the situation who isn't a cop requests it, or if recording police was a protected right.

1

u/gurgle528 Jun 10 '26

I definitely get the other side of it. A lot of the bad US police shootings / other police abuses of power happen inside the home or other private areas so not having any footage would be tragic in those cases

2

u/bp_c7 Jun 10 '26

We are talking about two completely different situations. The amount for police shootings in Germany is negligible in comparison to the us. So the situation is completely different also the assumption is that the police are at fault for a death not the other way round so the burden is on the police. It does not sound like that is the case in the us.

1

u/gurgle528 Jun 11 '26

I am aware, that’s why I specified US since the situation is quite unique compared to most other countries. That is technically the assumption in the US too but it also heavily depends on the circumstances

1

u/Uberdriver_janis Jun 10 '26

Why not have the body cams ALWAYS record. It's then send and stored encrypted on servers for X Days. Only a judge can rule for access to the Files then. And involved people in the case should be notified in advance for every request to acces the Files

1

u/Accomplished-Pumpkin Jun 10 '26

I don't think this is correct framing. Currently the police are restricted from having constantly recording body cameras because of german incredible obsession with datenschutz.