The police should be allowed to test their expanded powers for telecommunications surveillance, including the use of state trojans, in the fight against residential burglaries for longer. Last week, the federal government launched a “formulating aid” presented by the Ministry of Justice for the government factions in the Bundestag, which the parliament should adopt with their votes in a timely manner together with a draft law for greater protection for law enforcement officers and rescue workers.
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Since such a measure is an infringement of fundamental rights, the legislature initially limited the authorization to hunt burglars to five years. It would therefore expire – without an extension – on December 12th. Parliament also envisaged an evaluation after three years to assess the effectiveness of the clause.
The power has hardly been used so far
The Department of Justice conducted this review. However, the relevant periods fell during the time of the corona pandemic, restricts Marco Buschmann’s (FDP) department. At that time, many people worked from home and there was a decline in home break-ins. “Therefore, the numbers collected were not representative,” the Ministry of Justice continues. The draft therefore proposes to initially extend the authority for another five years. Their efficiency should then be examined again.
The evaluation, which was limited to 2022, showed that relevant telecommunications surveillance “was only ordered in 0.08 to 3.07 percent of investigations conducted on suspicion of residential burglary,” writes the executive in the justification for the amendment. “On the other hand, after reports from the law enforcement authorities in these cases, procedurally relevant results were often obtained that made it possible to solve the crime.”
At the same time, the federal government has one Amendment to the Explosives Act approved. In the future, prosecutors will be able to use state trojans as part of a source TKÜ, including in cases of ATM explosions. In its coalition agreement, the traffic light actually intended to limit the use of surveillance software and generally place it on constitutionally unobjectionable ground.
(olb)
