Berlin police create 19 new speed cameras

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Berlin. The Berlin police want to purchase 19 new handheld laser measuring devices to control speeding violations. This emerges from a tender by the police on the procurement platform of the state of Berlin. With the new speed cameras, the police want to replace existing devices from their inventory, which are being retired due to age, said a spokeswoman on request. A total of 54 hand-operated speedometers are currently – as in the future – in the authority’s portfolio.

The spokeswoman stated that the procurement of the new devices was not related to the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court from December 2020. The judges had decided at the time that speeding offenders had to get an insight into the raw measurement data of the flash units. Otherwise they will not have the chance to assert possible measurement errors.

Courts cast doubt on speed camera measurements

However, the constitutional judges did not decide on the basic use of speed cameras that do not save any raw measurement data. This is the case with many current laser measuring devices. Accordingly, the authorities cannot hand over raw data to those affected in these cases. In such a case, the Saarland Constitutional Court therefore classified the measurements of the Traffistar S 350 laser measuring device as unusable in summer 2019 and declared that it would also decide in the same way for devices that function in a comparable manner. The Saarland judgment did not have any effect on the entire federal territory. In the meantime, however, the Berlin police decided not to use their nine copies of the model. Although the Berlin courts then followed the decision of the Saarland judges with measurements of other models, the Berlin police decided only a few months later to use all available devices again.

On the other hand, the Berlin police had not reacted at all to the decision made recently by the constitutional judge from Karlsruhe, because the raw measurement data are now made available to speed offenders on request.

Berlin gets 20 speed camera trailers

In order to increase traffic safety on Berlin’s streets, the demand within the coalition, especially on the part of the Greens, has become louder and louder for more speed controls to be carried out. The interior administration led by Interior Senator Andreas Geisel (SPD) refused this in the meantime, however, with the note that the officials were already working at the capacity limit and could not issue further fines anyway. On the other hand, the Green parliamentary group argued that the use of additional mobile speed camera trailers saves personnel who would otherwise have to take speed measurements with manual devices. Ultimately, the red-red-green coalition agreed, as part of the pedestrian traffic section of the Mobility Act, that the two speed camera trailers will be increased to 20 devices by 2022. Two of them should come in January.

There are also a total of 33 stationary speed cameras in the capital. However, a significant part of it is regularly out of order. The devices are repeatedly damaged willfully. In other cases, their electricity had to be cut because of construction sites. Therefore ten of them were switched off last.

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