The NRW police are innovative, modern, digital and progressive with the new tablets and the "Digital Interrogation" app. In addition to traditional office questioning, investigators from the criminal investigation department and the traffic commissioner's offices in NRW now have the opportunity to conduct questioning of adult suspects, victims or witnesses at any location, such as a prison, hospital or directly at the crime scene, independently of their workplace, in compliance with data protection and legal requirements.
With the help of a tablet, a corresponding keyboard and the corresponding "pen", colleagues write, dictate or sketch directly on site. The persons concerned then immediately sign their interrogations digitally before the data is finally automatically transmitted to the office.
This means that it is no longer necessary to return to the police station or to visit injured persons in hospital, for example. On the one hand, this makes work much easier for the emergency services, and on the other, it also relieves the burden on citizens. In particular, people injured in traffic accidents or criminal offenses can concentrate fully on their recovery.
NRW Minister of the Interior Herbert Reul: "The police in North Rhine-Westphalia must be prepared for future challenges. That's why we put a lot of work and money into digitalization and reducing bureaucracy every year. We want to become even more citizen-friendly and simplify the work of police officers. Step by step, without neglecting data protection."
The first investigators have been using the new NRW police digital interrogation app since September 2024. Almost two hundred officers in Aachen, Düren and at the NRW State Criminal Police Office have been equipped with tablets and the interrogation app. "Very interesting and waited a long time for this opportunity", "Great fun!" or "The app is intuitive. I was particularly impressed by the problem-free transfer to the police case processing program," were the initial reactions of the experts from the police authorities. The state-wide rollout by the NRW State Office for Central Police Services to a total of 2,500 police officers is scheduled to start in February 2025.
In future, it is also planned that the app can be used for the interrogation of children and young people. This will enable traumatized children in particular to open up in a safe and familiar environment.
Note:
In accordance with federal law, criminal proceedings in NRW must be conducted electronically from 1 January 2026. The idea to develop the interrogation app originated from the interdepartmental project "electronic file in criminal matters" of the NRW police and the NRW justice system. The LKA NRW, which developed the app together with the LZPD NRW, is in charge of the police side of the project. The digital signature option prevents at least two media disruptions and considerably simplifies working with the electronic case file in criminal matters.