A new generation of pedestrian cameras intended for police and gendarmes will be deployed from Thursday to 2,000 patrols to begin with, the Minister of the Interior announced on Wednesday before the congress of the police union SGP Police Unit.
The deployment of these new pedestrian cameras announced on July 14 by President Emmanuel Macron will be completed “by the end of September,” added Gérald Darmanin.
The old model of cameras little or not used
During his visit to Vienna at the SGP Police FO Unity Congress, the Minister presented the new model of pedestrian cameras which will equip the police. The old model was so unsuitable (too heavy, low autonomy…) that it was little or not used.
Faced with this situation, the Minister of the Interior announced in September the order for 30,000 pedestrian cameras for an amount of 15 million euros. The contract was won by Motorola Solutions. “Easier to use, more robust, and with an autonomy of twelve hours much greater than the previous model, these new pedestrian cameras have been tested for several weeks by police and gendarmes in operational situations,” added Gérald Darmanin.
Useful for “objectifying offenses”
In a statement, the Ministry of the Interior specified that this camera will be “hung on the uniform” of the police or the gendarme, and “used in intervention in order to calm conflict situations and limit possible excesses”.
According to the ministry, they will “also make it possible to objectify offenses and provide the elements necessary for the prosecution of their perpetrators by collecting evidence”. These cameras will be equipped with “technical devices to guarantee the integrity of the recordings and the traceability of consultations”.