“The police are opposed to the decision by Federal Minister
of the Interior Nancy Faeser not to use Palantir's analysis software in
investigations. Does that have to do with the Hessian state election campaign?
The "abuse complex of Bergisch-Gladbach" is
considered to be one of the largest proceedings against pedo-criminals that
have ever taken place in Germany. In October 2019, a search of the apartment
found photos and videos showing sexual abuse of children. As it turns out, the
suspect is part of a network of sex offenders that ultimately includes 439 people
from several federal states.
What is now increasingly coming into focus: The
investigations, which also led to Hessen, were made easier, among other things,
by the analysis platform "Hessen Data", which was developed by the
American company Palantir. The investigators finally uncovered the identities
of several suspects from Hessen.
Cases like this will possibly occur more frequently in the
future, because apart from Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia, Hessen is the
only federal state to date that uses such analysis software. The Hessian
platform "Hessen Data" is also becoming more relevant because the
originally planned nationwide solution of a common analysis tool is a long way
off - if it is ever implemented at all.
Because Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD)
recently decided that the "VeRA" analysis program, which is
essentially based on "Hessen Data" and was also developed by
Palantir, may not be used - although the project was previously supported by
the Federal Ministry of the Interior and was advanced.
Faeser stopped the project “unintentionally”
"VeRA" stands for "interdisciplinary research
and analysis platform". As part of the "Saarbrücker Agenda", the
federal states had agreed that the police authorities of the 16 federal states
and the federal security authorities should have a joint query system for
complex investigations.
Investigators have heard that Faeser "arbitrarily
stopped" the project. In a letter that was sent from the ministry to the
members of the federal states on the administrative board of the police IT
fund, the subject says: "Decision of the house management". It is not
only heard from the Hessian security authorities that one suspects that Federal
Minister of the Interior Faeser made her decision against the program developed
by Palantir because of the state election campaign in Hesse. Even during her
time as a domestic politician in the Hessian state parliament, she made it
clear that she did not like working with Palantir.
There is dissatisfaction with the latest decision,
especially in the federal security authorities and in those federal states that
do not operate their own tool. You are now faced with the decision to call up
the already fully developed product "BundesVeRA" at your own expense
- you have this option.
Program development would take many years
The Federal Ministry of the Interior is not completely
closed to a solution, but no longer wants to use the Palantir software, but
wants to have its own program developed within the police force. Even if that
were to happen, it would take many years.
"With her decision, Ms. Faeser not only disregards the
vote of the entire professional community, since all 16 federal states had
spoken out in favor of the urgent need to introduce VeRA," says the
federal and Hessian state chairman of the Association of German Criminal
Investigators, Dirk Peglow. He was "very disturbed" about how many
years it would take before the internal IT solution mentioned by the interior
minister would be available. "The police don't build cars either, why do
we want to develop software solutions that are comparable to those of globally
active corporations?" In addition, the source code of the Palantir
software was viewed by the Fraunhofer Institute, checked for several weeks and
finished been found to be unobjectionable. The fear that sensitive data could
leak was not confirmed.
The Hessian Interior Minister Peter Beuth (CDU) says that
Federal Interior Minister Faeser "obviously out of sheer anti-Americanism
took away an important tool for modern crime fighting from the security
authorities".
Investigators describe Faeser's actions as
"hypocritical" because the German security authorities, for example
in the fight against terrorism and organized crime, receive a lot of tips from
the American investigative authorities. If this prevents attacks or initiates
larger investigations, it will be sold as a political success. Only: The
American authorities would not somehow come to decisive information - they used
the software from Palantir as well.”
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