Surveillance cameras with algorithms for the Paris Games

The French Parliament has definitely adopted a law on the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024 that envisages the use, initially on an experimental basis, of surveillance cameras that are theoretically powered by algorithms to quickly identify dangerous situations.

The Ministry of Sports defended, in a statement published on the night of Wednesday to Thursday, shortly after the parliamentary approval, this controversial device asserted that This will be done under “strictly controlled conditions of use and in a limited experimental framework until March 31, 2025”.

In addition, at the end of 2024, on the experience of its use in the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the summer of that year, a review will be made.

The goal, according to the Sports department, is “detect serious risks faster with algorithm-powered imaging“.

It is also about “creating fluid control at competition entrances and festival centers and better coordinating the teams mobilized for transportation security.”

The idea is that algorithms are integrated into programs for using surveillance camerasthanks to the experiences of previous episodes, allow the forces of order to be warned as soon as possible of phenomena such as the movement of people or abandoned luggage.

The Government, due to signs of concern expressed by parliamentarians from the left opposition, He insisted in his defense that facial recognition programs would not be usedbecause it is widely practiced in China to control the population.

The experiment could begin once the text of the law has been announced, for example during the Rugby World Cup organized by France this year in the fall.

The Sports Ministry stressed that the law would also allow violence and acts of hooliganism to be “prevented and more punished” at sporting events, with a “more systematic approach” to stadium bans issued by courts and increases of Sanctions for persons entering a competition area.

Some protocols that take on a particular resonance when remembering the failure of the organization of the Champions League final at the end of May last year, played by Real Madrid and Liverpool at the Stade de France, on the northern outskirts of Paris.

A failure marked by accusations of fraud launched earlier by the French authorities, and specifically directed against the English fans, to explain the chaos around the stadium and the actions of the forces of order against the fans , many of whom are actually victims of widespread theft and violence by local criminals.