Interior ministers of Germany’s 16 states called on Monday for changes in how the psychologically ill are dealt with following a fatal knife attack in Aschaffenburg in Bavaria last week.
Potential criminals needed to be identified at an early stage and there had to be better exchange of information between government bodies, Ulrich Mäurer, interior minister of the city-state of Bremen and current head of the conference of interior ministers, said.
Protecting the population needed to take priority over data protection, Mäurer said after the extraordinary conference, which was conducted online.
Investigators should be given additional facial recognition powers and allowed to analyse data with artificial intelligence, he said.
“There is of course no ultimate security, and we cannot make a record of everyone, but we are convinced that more can be done in this area,” Mäurer said.
The extraordinary conference was called after a 2-year-old child and a 41-year-old man were killed in a park in Aschaffenburg on Wednesday. A 28-year-old failed Afghan asylum-seeker has been arrested in connection with the murders.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz is to address parliament on the incident on Wednesday. The stabbings have caused outrage in Germany and provoked heated debate on migration ahead of parliamentary elections on February 23.
