This Shirt Could Make You Invisible to Kotti’s AI Cameras

Berlin artist Simon Weckert has created a shirt meant to make the wearer invisible to the surveillance state.

November 13, 2026

Photo: Amanda Altarejos

Eighteen months ago, in May 2025, Berlin’s data protection commissioner called video surveillance at Kottbusser Tor categorically illegal. In her annual report, Meike Kamp said that the cameras in front of Kotti’s police station — which cost Berlin more than €3 million euros to build — were violating data protection laws. She also criticised the city for “unauthorised” use of AI-powered facial recognition software that Berlin’s police force — asking for forgiveness, not permission — had initially hidden their use of. By the end of the year, her office had recorded a 50% increase in complaints.

None of this stopped the police, freshly equipped with increased surveillance powers, from launching unprecedented AI-powered video surveillance at Kotti this month. The 30 new cameras were installed over the summer, but their use was initially delayed by the September elections. This November, the cameras were turned on.

Give us your email to read the full story

You'll be added to our newsletter. See our privacy policy and unsubscribe anytime.

Thanks for supporting local journalism!

We sent a one-tap magic link to your inbox. Open it to confirm and you'll end up back on this story.

HEIST is a worker-owned online magazine, founded by writers and editors who after years working across Berlin's media landscape believed something essential was missing.

Anyone living here has felt a growing gap between the city as it actually is and the version being served up by mainstream outlets. We experienced that disconnect firsthand. We saw political censorship shape coverage decisions and felt the weight of billionaire ownership land directly on our work. It reached a point where we could either keep going along with it, or try to build something better.

That's why we created HEIST.

And look at you: scrolling, clicking, squinting at blurred text just to get a little further. If you'll go to that much effort to read HEIST, you can surely give us one email. That's the whole price, and the rest of the story is right behind it.

Real journalism costs money. We commission the hard-hitting, well-reported, long-form work everyone wants to read but nobody seems to publish anymore.

The future of this city is still in the balance. We intend to be part of that struggle. We hope that you'll join us.