The BVG released its crime statistics for 2025 and they paint a very grim picture. Although the number of crimes overall dropped compared both to 2015 and to 2024, this is only due to less minor offenses such as pickpocketing and vandalism. The amount of serious crime has remained on a similar level overall – with one exception. Sexual offences rose drastically, from 73 in 2015 to 314 last year.
While increased video surveillance in trains and buses appears to have been successful in deterring pickpockets (reported cases dropped from 12,500 in 2015 to 2,800 in 2025), it clearly did nothing to stop more serious criminals, such as sexual offenders. Despite this, the BVG appears to be treating camera surveillance as the way to make their trains safer: to complement the ever increasing amount of CCTV cameras across its stations and vehicles, it will now be expanding the use of AI surveillance systems.
This development comes in light of a new reform in surveillance law pushed through at the end of 2025 by the CDU/SPD coalition with the help of AfD lawmakers. Among other things, the amendment permits the usage of AI cameras in public spaces. The BVG states that for now it only plans to use these cameras in non-public areas such as tunnels, tracks and technical areas, but is looking into expanding this to station platforms as well – with the pilot project planned for Kottbusser Tor. Its goals, it states, are to detect unauthorised people on the tracks, as well as medical emergencies and safety hazards like unattended luggage and smoke or fire.
The project, called “Security Radar”, will see images automatically analysed and an alarm set off whenever something out of the ordinary occurs. With initially primarily targeting non-public areas of the subway network, the BVG is open about its priorities: deterring homeless people and graffiti artists, while doing nothing about the sexual offenders on its trains.
