The legislature has also provided for a constitutionally sufficient threshold for the
exercise of powers with regard to automatic number plate recognition measures.
Such measures are only authorised on the basis of facts indicating that criminal acts
will be committed inside or close to objects of this type, directly endangering persons
located inside or close to these objects. This is supplemented by the requirement of
Art. 33(2) second sentence BayPAG, applicable to the Act in its entirety, that relevant
information on the situation must be present.
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(2) The scope of data records set out in Art. 33(2) third and fourth sentences BayPAG is not objectionable if it is duly regarded as a framework requiring specification
(see para. 107 et seq. above). Since the creation of the database for cross-checking
requires that only those records may be selected from the overall volume of data
records which are likely to be relevant to ensuring security in or around the endangered objects pursuant to Art. 13(1) no. 3 BayPAG, a sufficient limitation as well as
its focus on a sufficiently weighty legal interest is ensured.
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(3) Also in an overall assessment, the specification of the constituent elements in
the provision is not objectionable under constitutional law. Subject to the general requirements under Art. 33(2) second to fifth sentences BayPAG and if applied in a
specific case in accordance with the principle of proportionality, as required by general principles, the provision does not raise constitutional concerns.
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dd) As a fourth option the Act provides for automatic number plate recognition at
police checkpoints (Art. 33(2) second to fifth sentences, Art. 13(1) no. 4 BayPAG). If
one interprets Art. 13(1) no. 4 BayPAG in accordance with the principles of general
security law pursuant to which the establishment of such checkpoints requires a specific danger, this provision, too, is compatible with constitutional law.
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(1) The provision authorises automatic number plate recognition in support of police
checkpoints insofar as these are established to prevent acts qualified as serious criminal offences on the one hand, or to prevent acts qualified as criminal offences under
assembly law or administrative offences (Ordnungswidrigkeiten) on the other hand.
Protection against these acts as well as the protection of assemblies involve legal interests of considerable weight that justify automatic number plate recognition measures. Upon reasonable interpretation of the provision, the carrying out of automatic
number plate recognition is limited to sufficiently specified grounds.
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(a) Pursuant to the first alternative of the fourth option, the aim of automatic number
plate recognition is – corresponding to the aim of the police checkpoints themselves
– to prevent the commission of criminal offences within the meaning of § 100a of the
Code of Criminal Procedure (Strafprozessordnung – StPO) and thus to protect
against acts qualified as serious criminal offences. Thus, it concerns legal interests
of at least considerable weight. The same also holds true for the criminal offences
under assembly law and administrative offences mentioned in the provision. Even if
the criminal and administrative offences set out in the provision do not each individually serve the protection of legal interests of at least considerable weight, these auto-
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