Thematic focus: New Surveillance Tools
(New) Surveillance Tools: An Introduction
by Louisa Zech and Eric Töpfer
Even in 2026, the federal government continues to flood the country with draft legislation aimed at expanding the surveillance powers of the police, law enforcement agencies, and intelligence services, thereby continuing the trend toward indiscriminate and automated mass surveillance. Attempts to take stock of the situation, let alone to limit it, have failed for the time being, even though they are more necessary than ever.
AI for Everyone: Dystopian New Security Laws
by Tom Jennissen
Both at the federal level and in numerous states, the German governments currently massively expands police powers. A defining feature of this wave of new police laws is the widespread use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) applications. The respective governments intend not only to fundamentally change police investigative work with automated applications, but also aim to monitor public spaces and turn the internet into a police database.
The Moving Target of Social Assessment
by Fabian de Hair, Philipp Knopp, and Stephanie Schmidt
In several German states, the way police authorities use AI-powered video surveillance is currently shifting. Unfinished technologies are being tested and implemented in urban areas, with legislative amendments creating the conditions for the police to participate in the further development of algorithms in the future. These surveillance experiments are emerging as a paradigmatic model for police use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and are becoming part of the infrastructure, with consequences for the objects and spaces under surveillance as well as for civil society’s assessment of these practices.
Privatized Surveillance: Government Access to Private-Sector Data
by Dirk Burczyk
In order to identify and locate suspects and to carry out further intrusions into their privacy, the police access data that is supposedly collected by private companies for private purposes in compliance with data protection laws: from telephone connections to flight reservations to financial transactions. The government’s appetite for data is virtually insatiable.
The Illusion of Control under the Rule of Law?: On Legal Protection against Covert Surveillance
by Eric Töpfer
Notification requirements, rights to information, preventive and corrective oversight by courts and supervisory bodies, as well as reports to parliaments and the public, are intended to guarantee control over covert surveillance under the rule of law. In reality, however, many affected individuals never even learn of these measures. Requests for information can be denied, oversight bodies are under-resourced, and reports fail to garner sufficient political attention. As a result, legal protection against covert surveillance often comes to nothing.
Surveillance in Political Trials: Interview with Antonia von der Behrens and Lukas Theune
Surveillance and repression have always been central issues in the realm of civil rights and political movements. Many people are currently feeling unsettled, because in the current wave of political trials – particularly the so-called „Antifa-Ost“ trials – a particularly large amount of evidence from covert operations, communications surveillance, and analyzed devices appears to be playing a significant role. Although the issue has actually been closely monitored for a long time, some are now wondering whether they are still up to date on this topic: While some common protective measures – which already seemed almost paranoid – may not have the desired effect at all, other areas that have not been the focus of much attention so far may be significantly more relevant in practice. What does state surveillance in the context of political repression actually look like today, what can or should be done, and what does the future hold?
Tech Fascism for the Deportation Militia: Technologies for Migration Control at ICE in the U.S.
Matthias Monroy
During his second term in office, Donald Trump has equipped the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with an unprecedented digital infrastructure for monitoring migrants: cell tower queries, real-time tracking, social media analysis, cell phone data from private companies, and biometric identification on the street. These tools are otherwise part of the arsenal used to combat terrorism or serious crime. Private technology companies such as Palantir, Cellebrite, Clearview AI, and Paragon provide the tools – or even the data – for this purpose, often without judicial oversight. These developments are also relevant for Germany, where the AfD is poised to win majorities and possibly take over ministries of the interior.
Non-thematic contributions
Cop Slop?: How Police Unions Use AI Images to Shape Policy
by Philipp Knopp & Alexander Bosch
Drawing on two case studies from the year 2026, this article discusses how police unions use image generators via Artificial Intelligence (AI). It argues that the convergence of police unions and image generators gives rise to a dual – social and technical – production of ideology, characterized by affective mobilization, friend-foe schemas, and the pop-culturalization of criminal policy campaigns. In doing so, police unions are continuing long-standing patterns. However, AI-generated images present their own challenges.
Police Shootings and Tasers in 2025: New Statistics on Firearm Use and DEIG
by Otto Diederichs and Matthias Monroy
The Conference of Interior Ministers‘ statistics on firearm use for the year 2025 record 115 shots fired at people. Of these, police fired at 38 people in vehicles. According to official figures, police killed 16 people. The number of shots fired at people and the number of injured rose again to the level seen in the mid-1990s. New figures are also available on Taser use. When compared with the firearm statistics, they refute key arguments made by proponents of stun guns.
„Palantir was Waiting for this Moment“: Tech Fascism in the United States
Interview with Jeff Ordower
U.S. activist Jeff Ordower analyzes the rise of an authoritarian tech complex made up of Big Tech, surveillance, and right-wing ideology. The interview covers the Palantir Corporation, Elon Musk, AI, the police state, and resistance to it—from tech workers to local movements against data centers. At its core is the question of how the fight against „techno-fascism“ can be won in solidarity with climate and tenants‘ movements. Jeff Ordower is an American organizer and climate activist who has been active in labor, climate, and community organizing for decades. He was the North America director of 350.org and now works for the „Other Side Project,“ which opposes authoritarian corporations.