#Germany
#Data
#Palantir
#Surveillance

>Police analysis software to evaluate health data

"Palantir's Vera analytics software is already in use in Bavaria. The Federal Council is now calling for a short-term solution for the German police."

"The Federal Council is advocating for the rapid deployment of police analysis software throughout Germany. The "short-term central provision of a jointly operated data analysis platform" could "make an important contribution to effective threat prevention and law enforcement by enabling targeted data analysis," according to a resolution (PDF) of the Chamber of States dated March 21, 2025. There is a "continuing urgent security policy and technical need."
Job market

In the resolution, the federal states cite the attack on the Magdeburg Christmas market in December 2024 and the knife attack in Aschaffenburg in January 2025. In the "recent past," "people with mental health issues have often appeared as perpetrators of violent crimes." It further states: "In order to better detect and record such serious crimes, individual behavioral patterns and risks must be identified, analyzed, and assessed in a timely manner."

Linnemann calls for register for mentally ill people

To implement this, "a nationwide network of information between security, health, weapons, and, where appropriate, immigration authorities must be ensured." Legitimate security concerns must be balanced with data protection requirements. The Federal Council is calling for new legal bases for data exchange and analysis.

The inclusion of health data in such a database could be particularly problematic. CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann commented on Deutschlandfunk at the end of 2024: "We have created large grids for right-wing extremists, for Islamists, but obviously not for mentally ill violent offenders. And that is simply a major deficit in Germany."

Linnemann continued: "And there simply needs to be an exchange between the authorities, the security authorities, also with psychiatry, with psychotherapists, and much more. That is my lesson: it is not enough to create registers for right-wing extremists and Islamists; in the future, this should also apply to the mentally ill."

However, the justification for the Federal Council's resolution does not mention a new register. It specifically mentions only "admission procedures of professional organizations such as medical associations, the judiciary, or penal and correctional institutions." The inclusion of this data is intended to help assess the potential for violence of individuals.

Criticism from the Psychiatrists' Association

The establishment of a central registry was criticized, among others, by the German Society for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychosomatics and Neurology (DGPPN). "Only certain illnesses are associated with an increased risk of violent acts, and only under certain conditions and if those affected are untreated. A central registry of all people with a mental health diagnosis would not prevent violent acts," said DGPPN President Euphrosyne Gouzoulis-Mayfrank.

According to the DGPPN, such a registry would promote the stigmatization of mental illnesses and reduce the chances of effective treatment. "The best means of violence prevention is early, coordinated, and intensive treatment for people with mental illnesses who, if left untreated, pose a risk of violent acts," Gouzoulis-Mayfrank continued.

Vera already in operation in Bavaria

The Federal Council also envisions making the Vera analysis software from the US provider Palantir, which is already in use in several countries, available as widely as possible. The Federal Government is called upon to "promptly provide a centrally operated, digitally sovereign, economically viable, and legally permissible automated data analysis platform for all federal and state police forces."

According to a report by Heise.de, Palantir's cross-procedure research and analysis platform (Vera) has been in live operation in Bavaria since December 25, 2024. The software could be used by police throughout Germany through an already concluded framework agreement. Vera's pilot operation ran from September 2, 2024, to December 24, 2024.

According to the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office, VERA will be used in cases of serious and extremely serious crime to prevent potential further offenses. Examples include organized drug trafficking, telephone fraud gangs, terrorist attacks, sexual offenses, and child pornography. VERA will access millions of data sets from all areas of the Bavarian police force, allowing investigators to search and analyze them.

https://www.golem.de/news/bundesratsbeschluss-analysesoftware-der-polizei-soll-gesundheitsdaten-auswerten-2503-194605.html