On August 8, 2024, the Rhineland-Palatinate data protection authority (LfDI Rheinland-Pfalz) announced that the pilot project by the city of Ludwigshafen for mobile video surveillance at selected locations in the Ludwigshafen urban area to combat illegal dumping of waste meets data protection requirements.

The LfDI Rheinland-Pfalz clarified that it was repeatedly approached by the municipalities with the request for video surveillance of rubbish containers and other rubbish collection points, and after analyzing the concept, it approved the pilot project.

In particular, the LfDI Rheinland-Pfalz outlined that:

• the municipality has already used and exhausted numerous milder measures in the fight against pollution, such as patrols, advice services, and creative public relations work;
• the municipality is taking extensive technical and organizational measures;
• surveillance must take place for the clearly defined purpose of averting dangers, preventing illegal dumping of waste, and identifying its perpetrators;
• video cameras are installed in a vehicle converted for this purpose;
• public, and visible information is provided about the surveillance of the location in question;
• the cameras must not capture entrance areas of houses, buildings, or playgrounds;
• the recordings are pixelated, and pixelation may be removed only in case of specific suspicion; and
• the recordings must be deleted within 30 days - a longer storage period is only permitted if the recording is required in an administrative procedure.

You can read the press release here and the concept of the project here, both only available in German.