Raster search

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The raster search is a method of mass data processing in which information from external databases is automatically compared with other databases in order to identify specific persons. Certain groups of people are filtered out of public or private databases by searching for characteristics that are assumed to apply to the person being searched for. The aim is to limit the group of people to be checked, since, in contrast to a conventional manhunt, there is no known target person. The method was in the 1970s by the then BKA Chairmen Horst Herold for investigation by RAF - terrorists developed.

Raster search was named Word of the Year in 1980 .

history

In 1979 the first successful so-called "negative raster search" that became known took place and led, among other things, to the arrest of a wanted terrorist - Horst Herold explained the procedure a few years later:

“In 1979 the RAF maintained one or more conspiratorial apartments rented under false names in Frankfurt am Main , the police just didn't know where. Since the terrorists could not pay the electricity bill from account to account, it was to be assumed that their nicknames would have to be among those who pay their electricity bills in cash. That was around 18,000 at the time. How can one find out the terrorists' false names from such a crowd? The answer is simple: by deleting all legal bearers of names from the crowd of cash-paying electricity customers until only those bearers of false names can be left. As a result, all persons whose names had been established as legal names were deleted from the judicially confiscated magnetic tape of all cash-paying electricity customers: the registered residents, the car owners, the pensioners, the Bafög recipients, the owners recorded in the land register, the fire insured, the statutory health insurance and so on - any file with legal names can act as an 'eraser'. Only when it can be assumed that all legal data could have been deleted is the remainder of the magnetic tape printed out. In the case of Frankfurt, at the end of the procedure, which was also supported manually, only two false names were found: that of a drug dealer and that of the wanted terrorist Heissler , who was arrested shortly afterwards in his conspiratorial apartment that was identified. "

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the grid search was used for the first time in the preventive police area.

In March 2004, plans by the German Federal Minister of the Interior, Otto Schily, became known to use the dragnet search across the EU in the fight against so-called organized terrorism .

On April 4, 2006, the Federal Constitutional Court upheld a constitutional complaint filed by a Moroccan student against a computer search on the basis of a general threat in connection with the events of September 11, 2001 . Based on the decision (Ref .: 1 BvR 518/02), the raster search is restricted to the effect that it may only be carried out in the context of “concrete danger”, for example for the security of the federal government or a state or the life of a citizen.

Tasks and application profiles

First, the characteristics that result from conventional investigations are combined into a perpetrator profile . If, for example, the Russian mafia is investigated for money laundering , such a profile could include the following characteristics: "Citizen of a CIS country, no domicile or permanent residence in Germany, participation in domestic companies or property purchase in Germany, high purchase price". These characteristics are then queried in appropriate databases - in the example given, for example, the population register , all offices that issue residence permits or visas, the commercial register and the land register . From the search results, those data sets are compiled that have all the characteristics sought. Those people who get stuck in this “grid” are then specifically checked.

The success of the raster search depends on the creation of the perpetrator profile. If the profile is very specific without all of the characteristics being verified, the person you are looking for may fall through the grid. Conversely, if the characteristics are too general, a disproportionate number of bystanders are included in the group of people to be examined, which increases the further investigation effort.

A few years after its introduction, Herold described the advantages of IT-supported search methods as follows:

“Rather, IT enables us to compare facts, ie the prerequisite for detective combination work, faster and more reliably. With the help of EDP it is possible for the first time to compare a fingerprint that the police found at a crime scene in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, for example, with the fingerprints of all 2.8 million people we keep in the BKA. "

Legal bases

In the German federal states, the grid search is a measure under police law to avert a specific danger to high-ranking protected assets. The - with different content - regulations are:

  • Baden-Württemberg: Section 40 PolG,
  • Bavaria: Art. 46 PAG,
  • Berlin: Section 47 ASOG,
  • Brandenburg: Section 46 PolG,
  • Bremen: § 36i PolG,
  • Hamburg: § 23 GesDatVPol,
  • Hesse: § 26 HSOG,
  • Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: § 44 SOG,
  • Lower Saxony: § 37a NPOG
  • North Rhine-Westphalia: Section 31 PolG (subject of the cited decision of the Federal Constitutional Court),
  • Rhineland-Palatinate: § 38 POG,
  • Saarland: Section 37 PolG,
  • Saxony: § 62 SächsPVDG ,
  • Saxony-Anhalt: § 31 SOG,
  • Schleswig-Holstein: § 195a LVwG,
  • Thuringia: § 44 PAG.

In addition, since 1992, the grid search has also been a means of criminal prosecution regulated by law in Section 98a of the Code of Criminal Procedure . Insofar as the Federal Criminal Police Office is involved in criminal prosecution as a coordinating body, Section 28 BKAG also applies as a standard of authority .

Raster search in Austria

The history of the computer search in Austria is comparatively short. On October 1, 1997, a law came into force, which allowed the then controversial computer search. The trigger was the search for the letter bomb bomber who had carried out attacks in Austria in previous years. However, the assassin Franz Fuchs was then arrested rather by chance on the day the law came into force, without using the computer search. However, Fuchs' fear of the computer search may have contributed to his nervousness on the day of his arrest, which then led to conspicuous behavior.

According to the Austrian Ministry of Justice, however, the grid search has never been used since its introduction. Neither the police nor the public prosecutor's office ever made a request for this, but it was decided to expand the powers to include online searches and online surveillance .

criticism

A particular problem with this technology is that all recorded persons to whom certain characteristics apply (e.g. shoe size, gender, nationality) are initially suspected. In connection with appropriate measures against this group of people, this can be seen as a latent violation of the prohibition of discrimination . Linking data from different origins is also often seen as problematic with regard to the basic right to informational self-determination , as sophisticated computer-aided algorithms can be used to interpret data in such a way that additional information is generated.

In April 2004 it became known that after the analysis of around 8.3 million data records in Germany, only a single investigation had been initiated. But this was again adjusted . Critics of the grid search feel confirmed and see the grid search as a failure. The participants at the 14th German Administrative Judges Conference in Bremen at the beginning of May 2004 also shared this criticism. In particular, the judges demanded a time limit for security laws, as these could generally result in a restriction of fundamental rights and therefore require constant review.

During a demonstration against Nazis in Dresden's Südvorstadt in February 2011, all cell phone connection data were recorded over a large area in the area of ​​the demonstration for at least 4.5 hours. Participants included lawyers, journalists and members of the Bundestag and several state parliaments. The grid search was approved by the court to support investigations in cases of breach of the peace . Some of the data was then misappropriated and used for other investigations in connection with the demonstration. After the incident became known through research by the taz , the Dresden public prosecutor forbade the further use of the data for investigations that are not related to the fact of the breach of the peace. It is controversial whether the measures complied with the principle of proportionality .

literature

  • Thomas Petri , in: Lisken / Denninger, Handbuch des Polizeirechts, 5th ed. 2012, Chapter G, Rn. 528-564.
  • Hans Lisken : On the police raster search, NVwZ 2002, 513 ff.
  • Pieroth / Schlink / Kniesel : Police and regulatory law, 7th edition 2012, § 15, marginal no. 50-57.

Web links

Wiktionary: Raster search  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Petri , in: Lisken / Denninger, Handbuch des Polizeirechts, 5th ed. 2012, Chapter G, Rn. 528
  2. ↑ Jürgen Simon / Jürgen Taeger : Rasterfahndung - Development, content and limits of a criminal investigation method, Baden-Baden 1981, p. 11 ff.
  3. ↑ The position of the RAF has improved . In: Der Spiegel . No. 37 , 1986, pp. 38–61 ( online - September 8, 1986 , former BKA boss Horst Herold on terrorists and computer searches).
  4. ↑ Dieter Kugelmann , DÖV 2003, 781 (786) with further references.
  5. ↑ - 1 BvR 518/02 - . Federal Constitutional Court. April 4, 2006. Retrieved October 2, 2019.
  6. ↑ autox.nadir.org/archiv/chrono/rf_chro.html
  7. ↑ Pieroth / Schlink / Kniesel : Police and Regulatory Law, 7th edition 2012, § 15, marginal no. 54 ff.
  8. ^ Der Standard : ORF theme evening on Franz Fuchs , September 26, 2007.
  9. ↑ www.zeit.de: Everyone is suspicious of algorithms
  10. ↑ See Christiane Schulzki-Haddouti: Everyday Raster Search - What Makes Data Retention So Dangerous in ct´ 2010
  11. ↑ Just spied out . the daily newspaper . June 19, 2011. Retrieved June 19, 2011.