Toothless local council

300,000 video surveillance ended up in the bulky waste bin

The visitor flow recording in Innsbruck's city center: first celebrated, then - after critical reports - immediately disposed of.(Bild: Christian Forcher)

For four years, 27 video cameras monitored Innsbruck's city center. But for what purpose? What was the benefit? The shocking thing about it: 39 out of 40 councillors did not ask a single critical question.

Johannes Anzengruber, the deputy mayor at the time, was responsible for the department. At the municipal council meeting in November 2020, he presented the project to the municipal council: The system had been tested at the Fischvergnügen event in summer 2020. "We had very good experiences with it," says Anzengruber. However, he did not say which ones specifically.

Vague hope for Christmas markets in Corona times
The system was then also installed in the Maria-Theresien-Straße area. "It worked very well there too." What that meant remained unclear. "Based on the findings of these pilots, the system was refined, improved and optimized together with IKB, Swarm Analytics and an additional marketing partner in cooperation with the organizers and Innsbruck Marketing GmbH. This is in preparation for the Christmas markets," said Anzengruber.

We can control and analyze better and prepare Innsbruck as a business location for the future.

Vize-BM a. D. Hannes Anzengruber

Who controls, who analyzes?
The system is more than just a visitor flow analysis: "At the markets, you can see how many people are entering through a virtual turnstile. Image data is not stored. This system gives us the opportunity to control and analyze." But who controls and who analyzes remains unclear.

What happened to the data?
Anzengruber said that it could be installed on a modular basis at various locations: this would save manual counts, "we can control and analyze better and prepare Innsbruck as a business location for the future": By recording the number of passers-by in statistics and evaluating them in a quiet chamber of the city marketing department, the Chamber of Commerce, the tourism association or the city center association?

Such cameras were installed, but the background to this has not yet been fully clarified(Bild: Christian Forcher)

Or did someone pick up the phone to call the police to prevent gatherings of people in the old town?

The data octopus was left behind
The German government imposed the third lockdown in the fall of 2020. It ended, but the data octopus, which had been installed for a whopping 300,000 euros, remained. Until February 2024, when the oh-so-useful cameras were suddenly consigned to the dustbin of history.

Waved through by 39:1
In the search for meaning and purpose, the municipal council minutes provide only limited information. Not a single one of the 40 councillors questioned the action. Not even the Greens and Neos, for whom data protection is sacred. Only ALI councillor Mesut Onay voted against it.

Comment: Things must not be allowed to go on like this in future 
No critical questions about data protection, evaluation or security: the decision to implement a "visitor count" in Innsbruck's old town in the fall of 2020 is a textbook example of how things should not be done. A video-based visitor flow analysis was installed in the entire city center at lightning speed without complying with the minimum data protection requirements. 

It was not even deemed necessary to install a sign, but was satisfied with meaningless verbiage from the department responsible. Either the matter had been fully unpacked in the committees, including the supply of an Innsbruck-based company, or the councillors acted in a state of complete indifference. Neither should happen. It is tragic that the system was in operation for four years and nobody knows what ultimately happened to the data.