While waiting to be tested on the Croisette, during the Cannes Film Festival which begins this Tuesday, intelligent video surveillance has been the subject of an initial assessment by the Ministry of the Interior. “ These are not facial recognition experiments and there is no file crossing » insisted the ministry teams again, giving the first lessons on the use of cameras by the Paris police headquarters, the RATP and the SNCF during three recent concerts and the PSG-OL match counting for the 30th day of Ligue 1.
The objective of the device, authorized “on an experimental basis” for the Olympic and Paralympic Games of Paris 2024 by the Olympic law of May 2023, is to help video operators to identify abnormal situations including crowd movements, crossing of prohibited areas, movements in the opposite direction, abandoned packages or the presence of a weapon. For the Paris police headquarters, the challenge is to “ secure the Games and the surrounding areas of the Olympic sites “.
Video surveillance cameras will be placed on each of them in places where there are “ risks of overdensity » and around the “ prohibited areas “. The operational phase will begin with the Roland-Garros tennis tournament (May 26 – June 9), whose stadium will host the tennis events of the Games and the boxing final. The number of cameras will depend on the site, from 5 for example around the Paris-Bercy Arena, to 25 for the Vaires-sur-Marne nautical base where the rowing and canoeing events will take place.
A device used in transport
On the RATP side, the device was tested during the Black Eyed Peas concerts last April and Taylor Swift at Paris la Défense Arena with around a hundred cameras. The algorithms “ respond very well » in cases of intrusion and represent “ operational aid for crowd fluidification », Specified the management. The results are more mixed for the identification of abandoned objects. The number of video surveillance cameras used by the RATP will increase to 300 during the Games, just like for the SNCF.
The latter for its part used intelligent video surveillance during the PSG-OL match (4-1), on April 21 with around a hundred cameras deployed in two stations: Pont du Garigliano and Gare de Lyon. “ There were several dozen alerts over three days about intrusions. Our agents intervened for people on the tracks but there were no arrests or reports », Specifies the SNCF security department.
