the peaceful course of assemblies, as well as to protect against cross-border crime
or to prevent violations of the law on residency by means of random sweep searches.
The legislature pursues legitimate purposes with these measures. This also applies
to Art. 38(3) BayPAG, which provides that besides data use for these specific purposes, data may also be used for other purposes, subject to further provisions.
2. In principle, the authorisation of automatic number plate recognition is suitable for
achieving these purposes.
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Automatic number plate recognition as authorised by Art. 33(2) second to fifth sentences BayPAG contributes to achieving these purposes by identifying persons or
objects sought by the police. Since they help to find persons or objects whose arrest
might contribute to achieving the purposes stated in Art. 13(1) nos. 1 to 5 BayPAG,
such measures are, in principle, suitable for such purposes. The fact that crosschecks themselves only directly involve vehicle number plates so that in case of a
match the vehicle owner is identified only indirectly and that the vehicle owner will not
necessarily be the person sought, does not change this. For the probability of also
finding the persons or objects sought in order to achieve the specific purpose of the
measure is thereby, in any case, increased. This is sufficient for considering that a
measure is suitable for achieving a legitimate purpose (cf. BVerfGE 67, 157 <175>;
125, 260 <317 and 318>; 141, 220 <266 para. 97>; established case-law).
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However, the legislative framework on number plate recognition must also consider
the requirements of suitability in respect of each specific purpose. These requirements concern, in particular, the relation of these purposes to the data records used
for cross-checking (see para. 107 below).
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3. Automatic number plate recognition is also necessary for achieving these purposes. There are no indications that this purpose can be achieved in an equally effective
way through other measures with less weight of interference.
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4. Automatic number plate recognition is only compatible with the principle of proportionality in the strict sense if the authorisation to conduct the measure is sufficiently limited and overarching requirements pertaining to the measure and the use of data are observed (a). The challenged provisions do not fully satisfy these requirements
(b).
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a) Automatic number plate recognition only satisfies the principle of proportionality
in its strict sense as a prohibition of excessive measures if the purpose pursued by
this measure is not disproportionate to the weight of the interference inherent in it. To
meet this requirement, the measures must generally be conducted for a sufficiently
specific objective reason (aa) and must serve to protect legal interests of at least considerable weight or comparably weighty public interests (bb). This means that the
legislative framework on number plate recognition, by means of an overall balancing
of the measures’ characteristic circumstances, must be reasonable with regard to the
fundamental right to informational self-determination and thus tenable under consti-
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