Last week Mr. Halsdorf, Minister of the Interior, declared, that the surveillance in Luxembourg was being extended to one more zone on the “route d’Arlon” and that the surveillance system Visupol was being re-conducted for one more year. Almost every youth organization of the national parties and the pirate party reacted to this statement by issuing press releases and the member of parliament of “déi Lénk” André Hoffmann even asked Mr. Halsdorf via “question parlementaire” if there were no irregularities an unconformities with the law regarding an extension and re-conduction of the Visupol system.

I already showed you some quotes and also some YouTube clips I won’t reference anymore, they are below for the interested.

Personally I think, that we should NEVER agree on a further expansion of any sort of surveillance, those systems won’t reduce the rate of criminality but only move it to other areas. Public funded research found in the United Kingdom, that for 1000 surveillance cameras only ONE crime (mostly smaller ones) was being avoided per year. While cameras may increase the personal feeling of security, this is not true on an objective level as shown by further studies.

Luxembourg missed the opportunity to develop a clear and transparent framework to verify the success of the Visupol system by not conducting conclusive studies BEFORE the installation and we are even hiding more information as Mr. Halsdorf does not releases the study apparently conducted to allow the expansion of the surveillance zone. I think, that such a study is crucial for scholars and every citizen to allow them to make up their mind for themselves.

I clearly ask, that every expansion of Visupol should be stopped until there are conclusive and independent studies of the success and usefulness of Visupol. If such studies can not be produced by the responsible entities, then the Visupol project should be stopped as soon as possible.