“We wanted to equip the city with an ultramodern center that now allows us to connect 624 video protection cameras in this location.” This is how Christian Estrosi, the minister-mayor, presented the new urban supervision center to the press on March 8, 2010, accompanied by Éric Ciotti, president of the General Council. To date, the city has 200 cameras. The objective: to place 520 cameras in the public domain, 32 near middle schools, 30 in cemeteries, and 42 on the transport network by the end of the year. Located at 5-7 Place du Général de Gaulle, it is intended to combat delinquency. The Alpes-Maritimes ranks 7th concerning violence and 4th in terms of threats.
So what does this center consist of? Christian Estrosi specifies that it is equipped with an “eyes room where you watch, a brain room where decisions are made, and an ears room that allows you to centralize phone calls.” Added to this is geolocation, “the great novelty,” he mentions. Its goal is to locate vehicles and patrols on foot, by bike, or on horseback. At the cutting edge of technology, the center allows access to images from a mobile phone. From the town hall or the crisis management center, “we are capable of making decisions,” Christian Estrosi proudly states. Regarding the images, “the law allows us to store them for ten days. We have up to 500 terabytes of storage, which is equivalent to 1000 home PCs,” he adds.
Overall, the system costs more than 7.5 million euros. The city covers 6.4 million euros. It also provides the opportunity to employ people with reduced mobility: “people with reduced mobility are given the status of municipal police officers.” This ultramodern supervision center makes Nice the best-equipped city in terms of security with 600 cameras for one inhabitant compared to Paris which has 2000 cameras for one citizen.
Even though these cameras only operate in public spaces, isn’t the Big Brother phenomenon becoming a reality?
