Newsroom
03.04.2023
Coess activities

EU AI Act: CoESS discusses possible impacts in the security services with German security community

The 3rd FORSI expert workshop of the Hamburg Police Academy in Germany took place on 31 March 2023. The subject of the workshop was the (new) regulations on the use of artificial intelligence and drones. The core question of the workshop was: What are the current legal regulations and what will the new regulations mean for law enforcement and security services in practice?

At the European level, the "Artificial Intelligence Act" is currently being negotiated and is in the legislative process. Similar to the European data protection law, this legal act will have a considerable impact on the police and the security industry, namely on possible fields of application of artificial intelligence (intelligent video surveillance systems, predictive policing, etc.). The morning part of the workshop dealt with the current status of these future European regulations and the concrete effects on the police and security industry.

Of great practical interest is also the use of drones by the police and the security industry, to which the afternoon part of the workshop was dedicated. What regulations apply here? What are the legal requirements and are they practicable? Here, it was even possible to include a report from Switzerland - from the Zurich city police - in the workshop. The afternoon part thus served to structure and evaluate the regulations on drone use.

In both parts of the workshop, legal presentations could be combined with presentations from practice and thus the topic of artificial intelligence and drones could be approached on a broad basis.

After the welcoming addresses by Prof. Dr. Sven Eisenmenger, Head of the Research Institute for Corporate Security and the Security Industry (FORSI), and Florian Graf, Chief Executive Officer of the German Association of the Security Industry (BDSW), the morning section on the use of artificial intelligence by the police and the security industry began.

Alexander Frank, Head of EU Affairs, Confederation of European Security Services, opened the first substantive focus "The new law on artificial intelligence" with a report from Brussels. Afterwards, Dr Gaby Gurczik, Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs and Transport (BMDV), DP 20 - Principles Artificial Intelligence and Data Economy, presented the BMDVs perspective. Nils Pohl, research associate at FORSI, closed the first substantive focus with his presentation on legal implications for the police and security industry.

Afterwards, the use of artificial intelligence was dealt with from a practical point of view. PHK Hardy Maiwald, Policy Department of the Hamburg Water Police, dealt with the focus on water police and Cornelius Toussaint, Managing Director/CEO, CONDOR Schutz- und Sicherheitsdienst GmbH, with the focus on the security industry.

The morning session ended with a discussion moderated by Prof. Dr. Sven Eisenmenger.

The afternoon session was dedicated to the use of drones by the police and the security industry and was opened by Dr. Jan Dirks, BMDV, Department of Aviation, who presented the BMDVs point of view. This was followed by a presentation on the legal framework for the use of drones by the police and private security services by Dr Tim Holzki, Hamburg Authority for Transport and Mobility Change.

The use of drones and drone defence from a practical point of view was presented by Police Director Claus Reuter, Head of the Policy Department of the Hamburg Protective Police, for the police focus and Cornelius Toussaint for the security industry focus. Adj mbA Oliver Hess, Chief Accident Engineering Service, Head of Drone Competence Centre, Zurich City Police, closed the practical part with a report from Switzerland.

After a discussion moderated by Florian Graf, Prof. Dr. Sven Eisenmenger summarised the entire conference in his closing remarks and made it clear that FORSI would continue to move the topics of artificial intelligence and drones from a scientific perspective.

Translated version of the original text in German, available here.