IV. Police units of the Länder According to the information that is available to the Commission of the Länder, there are roughly 1.430 detention facilities of the Land Police nationwide. The Commission of the Länder visited eight police units of the Länder in the period under review. It addressed its visit reports containing the recommendations to the Ministry of the Interior of the respective Federal Land. 1. Mainz 1 and Mainz 2 police stations in December 2010 The Commission of the Länder carried out inspection visits in Mainz 1 and Mainz 2 police stations on 7 December 2010. The inspection encompassed the entire detention area of both facilities, as well as several questioning and search rooms. Furthermore, the Commission of the Länder examined the detention documentation of both stations. Mainz 1 police station has two detention cells, and Mainz 2 police station has eleven detention cells in which a total of 25 individuals can be accommodated. Recommendations of the Commission of the Länder Video monitoring facilities are available in several detention cells at Mainz 2 police station. The Commission of the Länder stresses that the video monitoring is an encroachment on the right to informational self-determination as a matter of principle. It recommends in this context to explicitly point the individuals in custody to the fact of video monitoring (for instance by affixing an appropriate pictogram). The collection of data should furthermore be shown by an optical or acoustic signal. The reason and the duration of video monitoring should be noted in the detention record. To protect privacy, the individual monitored should be enabled on request to visit a toilet outside the monitored area, as provided in the draft Act of the Land Government amending the Police and Regulatory Authorities Act (Landtag printed paper [Drucksache] 15/4879). Finally, the Commission of the Länder once more stresses that video monitoring cannot, and should not, replace personal contact with the individuals in custody. Reaction of the Ministry of the Interior and for Sport (Rhineland-Palatinate) A variety of technical means were available in the detention facilities of the Rhineland-Palatinate Police to collect data (e.g. video monitoring). The use of such means is said to be based in the Police and Regulatory Authorities Act (Polizei- und Ordnungsbehördengesetz) of RhinelandPalatinate and the provisions contained in the Detention Code for the Police (No. 3.5). The insertion of section 16 b by order of the Rhineland-Palatinate Landtag to amend the Police and Regulatory Authorities Act had comprehensively amended the collection of data by use of technical means in police detention facilities. This entailed a revision and a new version of the Detention Code of the RhinelandPalatinate Police. It could be assumed that the provisions which it contained very largely complied with the recommendations of the Commission of the Länder. The Commission of the Länder complains that Searching the inmates before taking them not all detention cells in Mainz 1 and Mainz 2 into custody is said to ensure, as a matter police stations are equipped with fire alarms. of principle, that no lighters or other means of ignition are taken into the detention cells. Nonetheless, networked and vandal- 65