Drone surveillance is officially banned by France’s Council of State. This Tuesday December 22, 2020 the highest French administrative jurisdiction has banned the use of drones to surveil protests and gatherings on the public road in Paris and everywhere else in France.
Nonetheless, the Council of State especially condemns the use of drones by the forces of order in Paris, under the orders of Paris police prefect Didier Lallement. The organization considers the controversial police prefect “must stop proceeding to drone surveillance without delay of gatherings of people on the public road” the members explain. The La Quadrature du Net (LQDN) association referred to the Council of State to stop the use of drones “to administrative police ends”.
Il n'y aura plus de drone en manifestation : le Conseil d'État vient de les interdire à Paris et de poser des conditions qui remettent largement en cause leur tentative d'autorisation dans la #PPLSécuritéGlobale.
— La Quadrature du Net (@laquadrature) December 22, 2020
Victoire totale. Passez de bonnes fêtes <3https://t.co/VffXFmzW69
Tweet reads: “There will no longer be drone during protestations: the Council of State has just banned them in Paris and has settle conditions that widely challenge their attempt for authorization in the [Global Security draft bill]. Total victory. Season’s greetings”
Furthermore, the association is happy with the jurisdiction’s decision in a decree released straight afterwards. “The police prefecture tried – to avoid the ban from the Council of State of using drones – to add an artificial intelligence blurring system. Today, the Council of State has fully rejected this grotesque attempt of avoiding the law” the leaders say. Back in May, as France was lifting the first lockdown, the same jurisdiction settled for the ban of using drones to these very ends.
Furthermore, the controversial “global security” draft bill provides for regulating and supervising the use of drones by the forces of order. The article 22 reads that police officers are now allowed to use images in the public space as soon as they think it is necessary.
