Monitoring | AI on the Kotti: Camera is running

The behavioral scanner analyzes the video recordings using AI. Photo: nd/Jule Meier Visibly in high spirits, Iris Spranger (SPD) walks towards the Kotti guard in Kreuzberg on Wednesday morning. The Senator for the Interior has a present wrapped in red wrapping paper. “As a thank you for always giving me a cup of coffee from you,” she says and hands it to a police officer. Today is a big day for the senator: her long-planned project for AI-supported video surveillance in Kreuzberg will be presented to the press. From November, 30 video cameras with behavioral scanners will be running permanently on the Kotti.

In the project, which was criticized by the opposition and the data protection commissioner, the Senate had always emphasized that data protection was maintained because the AI ​​did not compare biometric data.

In fact, the behavioral scanner processes a pixelated image from the video recordings. To do this, the software places a kind of stick figure over each recorded person and describes their posture and movement as vectors in a mathematical space. She then compares the result with her training data. At the same time, it evaluates the entire video image to classify the context of the movement.

If the AI ​​assesses the movement as behaviorally abnormal, an acoustic signal sounds in the Kotti-Wake and the previously black PC screen lights up. The officers now see the unpixelated video image and have to decide for themselves whether to trigger an operation or not. According to the police, the focus is on punches and kicks, but an alarm is also triggered if people are lying on the ground.

The image data is stored for up to 28 days and the data ends up encrypted in the Berlin police data center, as an official on site explains. “The resolution of the cameras does not allow for facial recognition,” claims the police project manager. A look at the screens in the Kotti guard at least shows the facial features of people walking close by.

In addition, the police are allowed to store the image data for longer if it serves as evidence. The Federal Criminal Police Office's facial recognition software can then be used to analyze the image material, and the biometric data is compared.

None of the 30 cameras are aimed at apartments or windows. The police plan to evaluate the project. In Hamburg, an evaluation published by the police showed that around 99 percent of the situations reported by the AI ​​did not actually represent a problem. In Mannheim, even after eight years of operation, the police were unable to name a single case in which behavior analysis would have prevented a crime or helped solve it.

The Senate received 1.88 million euros from federal special funds for video surveillance at Kottbusser Tor. 349,000 euros in operating costs will be paid from the state treasury. AI video surveillance is possible through the tightening of the General Security and Order Act 2025 (Asog). The Greens and the Left are suing the Constitutional Court against the tightening of Asog. However, Iris Spranger “firmly assumes” that she has created a legally secure project with AI video surveillance.

“AI is future technology in security policy,” says Spranger. The video surveillance, which the Senate and the police call “video protection,” is also intended to deter crimes. They want to shed light on the dark field of crimes on the Kotti.

The senator sees Berlin as a pioneer. After the Kotti, the Warschauer Brücke, Alexanderplatz and Görlitzer Park will be permanently video monitored with behavioral scanners. All of these places are so-called crime-prone places where the police are allowed to stop and check people for no reason. The controls encourage racial profiling because the police sometimes only evaluate a person's external impression in order to carry out controls.

Several dozen demonstrators gathered on the Kotti on Wednesday. "We think it's completely crazy that AI is being used at Kotti," a loudspeaker echoes from the entrance to the station. If meetings take place at Kotti in the future, the cameras must be switched off. According to the police, citizens can recognize this because the red indicator lights on the cameras no longer light up.

»I have zero trust, neither in the police nor in the administration. At the beginning of August there was a hacker attack on the Berlin administration. The authorities are not able to protect their own data," says Ünal, one of the demonstrators, in an interview with "nd". He has been active with the tenants' initiative Kotti & Co. for several years and has worked on Kottbusser Tor for a long time.

“AI video surveillance is aimless, it is mass surveillance and criminalizes harmless behavior,” says Ünal. “There used to be life in the square here.” But since the police station moved into a residential building in 2023, there is no longer any street music and people are being pushed out of the square. »People live here in poverty, in precarious conditions, they need their public spaces. What they don't need is more police control. The police presence here is intimidating. Of course there is crime here and that puts a strain on people. But it’s been doing that for 30 years – and even with more police, the situation hasn’t improved.”

The demonstrators are against the criminalization of Kotti and for real security in the neighborhood. Better social counseling and more outreach social work would make this safer. In addition, increased rents and increasing police presence led to displacement.

True security does not come from cameras and AI, but from social security. »It takes social contact with people in the shops who are constantly keeping an eye on the street and their neighbors. People who have lived here for generations create networks and that creates social security," says Ünal from Kotti & Co.

Staring at the Kotti: Police officers at Kottbusser Tor are now monitoring with the help of “artificial intelligence”. Photo: nd/Jule Meier --> No billionaire behind them Other media have corporations or billionaires behind them. We have the nd.Genossenschaft and readers like you. That makes us independent and that’s exactly how we want to remain. But it also means: without you the calculation won't work. We need 300,000 euros by the end of the year.

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