18:00 - 19:30
VHS Kassel
Constitutional limits on police and intelligence surveillance powers
Of. 25.11.2025, 18:00
VHS Kassel, Wilhelmshöher Allee 19 – 21, 34117 Kassel
lecture: Prof. Dr. Clemens doctor, Founding Director Research Institute for Public and Private Security (FÖPS Berlin) and until 2023 Professor of police law at the HWR Berlin
More and more surveillance, more and more data, less and less control: Instead of relying on evidence-based legislation, Under the pretext of “strengthening the subjective feeling of security” and other justifications, the expansion of police and intelligence surveillance of even innocent and non-suspect people is being pushed forward. AI-powered video analysis, Comparison of police data with the Internet and evaluation of mass data, Data retention, biometric facial recognition, Automated license plate queries and increasingly limited exchanges between police and intelligence services have noticeable consequences for the civil liberties of all people in Germany. Clemens Arzt classifies and explains the legal and social risks of this development, why the protection of fundamental rights and human rights is more important than ever in the current security discourse. The experience with the Ordinance of the Reich President for the protection of the people and the state from February 1933, which, with the abolition of constitutional principles, formed the basis for the creation of the Gestapo, reminds us, not to override or override any constitutional rules for police work.
An event organized by the Königstor Police Headquarters Memorial Initiative e.V. in cooperation with the Kassel Adult Education Center and the Hessian State Center for Civic Education