Debate over whether to keep Olympic surveillance system in Paris

The surveillance system put in place for the Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer in Paris is still in place and in use, with a decision on whether to continue doing so due in the New Year.

Around 185 video cameras overlooking public spaces were linked in a network for the Olympics, and the images were surveyed constantly by an artificial intelligence-based software programme.

This sent alerts to a control room when it detected something out of the ordinary, such as a sudden rush of people, or a bag left in the street.

The system is reported to have worked much better than expected, and allowed police on the ground to be informed of incidents quickly.

The only problem was in its detection of weapons, with several false alerts.

Sources say the senior police officer in Paris, Préfet de Police Laurent Nunez, is strongly in favour of retaining the system.

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Personal freedom concern

For years France has lagged behind other countries in its use of surveillance cameras. The regulator Commission Nationale de l’Information et des Libertés (CNIL) opposed their use on the grounds that they were too great a risk to citizens’ personal freedom.

France has far fewer public video cameras as a result, and strict rules when they are in place – for example businesses can use them for safety and to stop shoplifting, but the cameras must be placed so they do not cover the street.

Similarly, camera doorbells must be positioned so they do not record the street, or public areas of blocks of flats.

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The strict policy has caused anomalies – CNIL warns people not to have dash cams in their cars because filming people in the street or in their cars without their knowledge is illegal, but police, gendarmes and the courts use dash cam recordings as strong evidence of what happened in motoring or other disputes.

Surveillance system's successful trial 

A special law had to be passed for the Olympic Games network to be put in place.

Lawmakers expected that it would be used as a trial for a longer-lasting system, and put a limit of March 31, 2025 for a new law to be passed or for the network to be dismantled.

The French prime minister’s office told France Info that a report on the performance of the surveillance network was being prepared and should be ready by the end of December.

A decision on whether the network should remain in place will be taken after the report has been considered.

Civil liberty groups are opposed to the system, which they fear will open the door to facial recognition software being allowed in France.

This would let police feed into the system a photograph of an escaped prisoner, for example, with alerts going out if the system spotted someone the computers thought looked like them.

AI to crack down on undeclared swimming pools 

The use of artificial intelligence is being extended by France’s tax authorities who have used AI trained software to analyse satellite photographs to track undeclared swimming pools in France for the past two years.

In 2023, 140,000 pool owners received letters from the tax authorities inviting them to put their pool tax declarations in order, with an estimated €40 million in taxe foncière collected as a result.

Now the system is being extended to look for undeclared extensions to properties such as new garages, garden sheds and conservatories.

Read more: French property tax fraud: what is targeted other than 'secret’ swimming pools?

Experts warn that identifying such extensions from satellite photographs is much more difficult than spotting a swimming pool, and expect that as the system comes into use, the number of wrong identifications will rise.

Artificial intelligence is also being used to analyse data in the new gérer mes biens immobiliers (‘Manage my properties’ – a section of the French government’s tax website where property owners can declare what their property is used for) and used in building declarations which came into force last year.

The aim is to identify second homes and to check that taxe d'habitation is being paid for them. It is also being used to check for empty living accommodation in communes, mainly large towns and tourist areas, where there is a tax on such properties.