Dispute over central server in Baden-Württemberg: Data protection officers want to allow 110 emergency calls to be quickly located

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Dispute over emergency call location: “Normal citizens sometimes no longer understand our state”

Photo: Peter Kneffel / dpa

If an emergency call is received on the number 110, extreme urgency is usually required.

But locating injured and missing people in Germany is often unnecessarily difficult: In the dispute over the location of 110 emergency calls, the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Interior has therefore agreed on a solution with the state's data protection officer.

As the ministry told the dpa news agency, it had been agreed to allow the location data to be passed on in a "provisional nationwide pilot operation" - provided it was used "only to provide assistance and not for law enforcement."

The police are working on the fastest possible technical implementation to use the sometimes vital information.

At the same time, work is being done to create a legal basis for the collection, storage and distribution of data.

Due to legal hurdles in Baden-Württemberg, the police have not yet been able to quickly trace 110 emergency calls nationwide.

The location data from all over Germany flows centrally to Baden-Württemberg, but cannot be accessed and passed on due to the legal situation in the southwest, as the Interior Ministry confirmed.

It is therefore unclear whether the Police Act offers a sufficient legal basis for this.

If someone gets into trouble and dials 110, but may no longer be able to give their location, the officers cannot find them as quickly as they would actually be able to.

This was also the result of a request from an SPD member of the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament to the Ministry of the Interior there.

The authority writes that you can only locate the number 112, but not 110 - due to legal problems in the southwest.

"Germany's federal structure is currently a hindrance here for legal reasons," says the Interior Ministry in Kiel.

Location would be technically possible very quickly and precisely using the “Advanced Mobile Location” (AML) process.

When you dial an emergency call, various sensors such as WiFi and GPS are switched on on a smartphone and the data is automatically transmitted via the mobile phone network.

The Germany-wide AML server is located in Baden-Württemberg

EU law requires your location to be automatically transmitted as soon as you dial 110.

The transfer also works – all data ends up in Baden-Württemberg.

The central AML server for all of Germany is located in the Black Forest.

According to the answer to the parliamentary question, this is because existing technical structures in the Black Forest are used for the 112 area; we are talking about synergy effects.

However, the server has so far turned out to be a dead end.

Because data protection officers have problems with the use of data.

According to the position of the Baden-Württemberg state commissioner for data protection, there is no legal basis for handling the information.

The location of helpless people may only be determined in individual cases.

For automatic transmission, however, there needs to be a legal basis that makes it clear what exactly can be done with the data.

"This is particularly true in the case of the police, who are not only responsible for helping in emergencies, i.e. warding off danger, but also for investigating if there are indications of crime," said a spokesman for the state data protection officer.

According to the demand, the location data should only be used to provide assistance.

"This is also with a view to the fact that people should not refrain from calling the emergency number out of fear of automated location transmission."

Radio cell interrogation to find injured and missing people is more complex and slower

In contrast to the police emergency number 110, anyone who calls 112, i.e. the emergency doctor and fire department, can be located without any problems; the legal requirements are different, confirmed the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Interior.

If there is a specific threat to life and limb, the officers could already locate injured and missing people - using the so-called radio cell query.

But that is more complicated and takes longer.

According to the Ministry of the Interior, the data protection officer has now approved a pilot operation to use the data.

At the same time, they want to work on the legal basis.

"The average citizen sometimes no longer understands our state," said the head of the German Police Union, Ralf Kusterer.

»Especially when locating 110, extreme urgency is usually required.

Anyone who does not allow this location is endangering life and limb. Kusterer criticized the fact that the ministry's examination had already gone on for far too long.

eru/dpa