Berlin to start AI video surveillance at Kottbusser Tor in early November

What is planned

Berlin's interior senator Iris Spranger (SPD) presented the system on Wednesday, 28 October 2026, at the police station above Adalbertstraße at Kottbusser Tor. Thirty cameras at 15 locations are meant to watch the square around the clock and flag certain violent offences and emergencies, so that officers can step in faster. The cameras have been installed for a while, but until now the technology has only been adjusted and tested. The four-week real-time trial phase begins in early November, and POLITICO reports that regular operation is to follow in early December. Twenty police officers have been trained to use the software.

Why this square

Police describe Kottbusser Tor as one of seven places in Berlin with high crime levels, partly because many people with addiction spend time there. Drug dealing, theft, robbery and assault are part of everyday life at the square, and police opened a sub-station there in February 2025. According to the police, many offences are linked to acquisitive crime committed to fund drug use. Spranger said that more than 900 offences were recorded in the area over the past twelve months, and more than 300 of them involved physical attacks, which she described as a third of offences.

Offences recorded (more than)900

Physical attacks (more than)300

Offences recorded (more than)

900 offences

Physical attacks (more than)

300 offences

Data from the article text

How the alarm works

Monitors in a separate room of the station stay dark until a camera flags suspicious behaviour. Then an acoustic signal sounds, the screen lights up and shows that camera's image, and the officer on duty decides whether to send units and how many. The developers describe the system as using "semantic AI", meaning it tries to grasp situations and patterns of human behaviour rather than merely registering movement. It is trained on blows, kicks and people lying on the ground, and project leader Markus van Stegen said it could be programmed for much more, though there are currently no plans to expand it. After an alarm, officers see the normal video picture in which people can be recognised, not the simplified stick figures the AI analyses.

Privacy and data

Police president Barbara Slowik Meisel told reporters at the media event that the software does not recognise faces.

“The software recognises no faces, only movement sequences.”

Van Stegen added that the system performs no real-time biometric identification and does not register skin colour, gender or clothing. Spranger conceded during the question round that her earlier description, that the images would stay anonymised, had not been accurate. Reports differ on retention, with 30 days in some accounts and 28 days in POLITICO's.

Resistance and next steps

The plan faces resistance, and Spranger wants to use the technology at further places, according to reporting on the project. The legal basis comes from a reform of the General Security and Order Act passed by the governing coalition, which POLITICO calls Schwarz-Rot. The real-time trial starts in early November. If it runs as planned, regular operation is due to begin in early December.