Report 2619

If you have already strolled around Notre-Dame de Reims Cathedral (51), you may have been analyzed by an artificial intelligence. The "Savari" tool, designed by the French giant Thalès (1), was integrated into the surveillance cameras of the agglomeration and used by the municipal police, for a one-year experiment. The goal: automatically detect groups or intrusions, and identify weapons or vehicles. Problem, neither the inhabitants nor the elected representatives of the opposition have been informed.

A revelation that comes at a time when [the Senate has just adopted](https://www.lemonde.fr/sport/article/2023/01/25/jo-2024-le-senat-adopte-la-videosurveillance- intelligent_6159170_3242.html), Tuesday, January 24, 2023, Article 7 of the Olympic Games Bill. It authorizes these experiments with cameras equipped with algorithms from this year for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

Last November, Amnesty International warned of “the risks of dangerous abuses” for individual freedoms contained in this law. Unlike conventional video surveillance, this type of tool can lead to "massive processing of personal data, sometimes including sensitive data", [explains the CNIL](https://www.cnil. fr/sites/default/files/atoms/files/cameras-intelligentes-augmentees_position_cnil.pdf) in a report published in July 2022.

Reims did not wait for parliamentarians to authorize it in the capital to carry out its own tests and take advantage of the legal vacuum. ** It is Arnaud Robinet, mayor of the city since 2014, affiliated with the Horizons movement of Édouard Philippe, who would have decided on this collaboration. ** Contacted by StreetPress, the right-wing city councilor refused to answer our questions.

Algorithm and “deep learning”

Savari is an “intelligent video surveillance, key to the urban security of Smart Cities”. This is how Thalès presents its solution on the site of the Mayors' Fair, an annual seminar during which companies have stands to flirt with elected officials.

It uses "intelligent video algorithms" and "deep learning" to "automatically monitor, supervise and analyze" situations such as clusters and intrusions. It can also “detect, identify and classify” weapons, bicycles or vehicles, assures the French flagship. Using automatic license plate recognition (LAPI), Savari also allows roadside checks and fines for those who do not pay for parking.

An experiment carried out behind the backs of the Rémois

“What shocks me is that it was done in great opacity. It is not normal that citizens are not informed, “says Léo Tyburce, elected Europe-Ecologie-Les-Verts in Reims, informed of the Thalès experiment in his city by StreetPress. During the municipal council of November 16, 2021, the ecologist had questioned the mayor Arnaud Robinet about the use of artificial intelligence in the cameras of the municipality mentioned during a previous public meeting. The city councilor on the right had returned the ball to his Mr. Security, Xavier Albertini.

“As part of the evolution of the organization of the municipal police, it was desired to set up a study and the development with a national company of software that is not facial recognition (…) but it is an ability to recognize a certain number of elements and in particular, within the limits of the regulations, to recognize any vehicle which is caught by the field of the cameras, ”declared the deputy. The city council video is still online. He therefore admits that a study related to surveillance cameras is underway with a national company. Without revealing which it could be, nor revealing all the uses of this technology.

At the time, opposition city councilor Leo Tyburce was reassured by this response. "I was told, don't worry, everything is fine, it's just to spot vehicles..." Today, he feels cheated:

“Finally, we see that it makes it possible to identify groups of people, to install a kind of urban surveillance. I would have liked there to be a public debate around this question. There is a terrible lack of transparency. »

Rémois Antoine (2), member of Non-violent Action COP21, was not aware of the use of artificial intelligence by the police. "I'm interested to know that the tool identifies gatherings because we do undeclared actions," he points out. The environmental activist is well aware of the surveillance cameras in his city. With his group, they tackle backlit billboards. “You realize once you look up that you are being watched from all sides. » So, in order not to get caught, they established a map of the monitored areas:

“We had spotted around sixty of them on barely a square km in the city center in 2021.”

Reims is watching you

It is no coincidence that Thalès managed to sell its tool to the "city of coronations", particularly fond of surveillance cameras. Arnaud Robinet made it a campaign argument. Since 2014, no less than 218 additional cameras have been installed in the Reims conurbation, which only had 36. police station where 120 officers observe the images 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The multiplication of cameras and therefore of videos to be analyzed is one of the arguments put forward by Xavier Albertini to justify the acquisition of an algorithm. At the municipal council, after assuring that it was only a question of monitoring cars, he added: "From a technical point of view, there are 56,000 different types of vehicles (…) which are thus entered into a base of data and when there is a requisition to search for a vehicle, there is almost instantaneousness of all the cameras. »

For manufacturers in the sector, the proliferation of surveillance cameras makes artificial intelligence necessary to help humans, who have become too few in number. A “technological bluff”, according to La Quadrature du Net, which defends rights and freedoms on the Internet. "There is a huge private market that is being launched and which is partly financed by public funds", analyzes Martin Drago, specialist in these issues within the association.

Seven million euros to film its inhabitants

Arnaud Robinet had to pay the price to acquire the brand new product from the aerospace giant. In the city's budget, for its second term which began in 2020, no less than seven million euros are dedicated to investments for video surveillance and equipment for the municipal police. Software so-called “proofreading assistance”, which must help the police to provide evidence to the judicial authority during requisitions, was financed by this budget. But the exact amount is not known. Neither Thalès nor the town hall of Reims wanted to provide it to us.

Reims is thus added to a long list of French cities that have signed contracts with companies offering them to experiment with “algorithmic video surveillance”. On its website Tecnopolice.fr, La Quadrature du Net has listed them in about ten cities. In Nîmes (30) or Moirans (38), the tool of the Israeli company Briefcam analyzes the actions of the inhabitants. Marseille (13) has been collaborating since 2018 with the local company SNEF. In 2016, Toulouse (31) signed a contract with the American box IBM. Cost for the southern city: 47,350 euros.

These experiments cost communities thousands of euros. However, their usefulness remains to be demonstrated. In a report published in 2020, the Court of Auditors ruled that "no overall correlation was found between the existence of video protection devices and the level of delinquency committed on the public highway, or even the rates of elucidation".

From legal no man’s land to legalization?

According to specialist Martin Drago, who manages the Technopolice campaign, the deployment of these tools has been facilitated by the legal uncertainty surrounding them. “In the penal code, there are specific articles on video surveillance cameras, but nothing on algorithmic video surveillance which nevertheless carries new attacks on individual freedoms. " He adds :

“Surveillance manufacturers are taking advantage of this legal no man’s land to experiment. »

(1) Contacted by StreetPress, Thalès declined to answer our questions.