Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) - Almost exactly two years after the night-time riots in the city of Stuttgart, the city is using significantly more video cameras in order to be able to better monitor the situation in the central squares. As of this Friday, 23 cameras will be switched on at seven locations, and another is to be put into operation by the end of August, the city announced on Wednesday. "Optimized video surveillance around the Schlossplatz gives us all more security," said Stuttgart's Lord Mayor Frank Nopper (CDU). The new cameras are intended to help the police identify suspected perpetrators and intervene quickly. It has been using five Treasury camera locations since June 2021.
State Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU) spoke of a "milestone on the common path to even more security in downtown Stuttgart". After the so-called riot night in June 2020, the state and the city had agreed on a security partnership and drawn up a ten-point plan. There are now more police officers in the city center, and lighting and video surveillance are also issues.
According to the city, the cameras are in operation on weekends between Friday and Sunday and before public holidays at night and into the morning hours. "The background is that there has been an increase in crime in the city center during this period in the past," the city said. Cameras are turned off at all other times. The state's data protection officer was involved in the planning.
With the extended video control, the city and the police are reacting to the Stuttgart "riot night" and to many other nightly riots and outbreaks of violence in the past.
