FrankfurtPolice made nearly 1,000 stops on the Zeil shopping street.
Reports say officers single out young men read as migrants, search phones and photograph them.
Lawyer Johannes Koch says checks without suspicion permit only establishing identity, so searching phones against someone’s will is unlawful.
Police deny racial profiling and call the checks a direct follow-up to the 31 October riots.
The checks continue, and city councillors Deniz Avan and Emre Telyakar say racial profiling is suspected.
How each outlet framed it
- netzpolitik.org leans critical
- documents the Frankfurt Zeil phone searches of migrant-read young men and cites minister Poseck's 'migrant milieu' remark as the trigger
Sources: netzpolitik.org