With AI, jets and police, Paris is securing the Olympics – and worrying critics

PARIS– A year ago, the head of the Paris Olympics boldly declared that the capital of France would be “ the safest place in the world ” when the Games begin this Friday. Tony Estanguet’s confident prediction seems less absurd now, with squadrons of police patrolling the streets of Paris, fighter jets and soldiers prepared to fight, and imposing security barriers with metal fences erected like an iron curtain on both sides of the River Seine that will star in the opening show.

France’s vast police and military operation was largely due to the period from July 26 to August. 11 Gaming faces unprecedented security challenges. The city has repeatedly suffered deaths extremist attacks and international tensions are high due to wars in Ukraine It is Gaza.

Instead of building an Olympic park with venues clustered outside the city center, like Rio de Janeiro in 2016 or London in 2012, Paris chose to host many of the events in the heart of the bustling capital of 2 million people, with others spread across the city. suburbs that are home to millions more. Placement of temporary sports arenas in public spaces and the unprecedented choice of stage a river opening ceremony extending for kilometers (miles) along the Seine, makes your protection more complex.

Olympic organizers also concerns about cyber attackswhile rights advocates and critics of the Games are concerned about the use of Paris AI-Powered Surveillance Technology and the broad scope and scale of Olympic security.

Paris, in short, has a lot to do with keeping 10,500 athletes and millions of visitors safe. See how you intend to do this.

A Games force of up to 45,000 police and gendarmes is also supported by a 10,000-strong contingent of soldiers that has been assembled the largest military camp in Paris since World War II, from where soldiers should be able to reach any of the city’s Olympic venues within 30 minutes.

Armed military patrols in vehicles and on foot have become common in crowded places in France since gunmen and suicide bombers acted in the name of al Qaeda and the Islamic State group. repeatedly hit Paris in 2015. They do not have police powers to arrest, but they can attack attackers and restrain them until the police arrive. For visitors to countries where armed street patrols are not the norm, the sight of soldiers with assault rifles can be shocking, just as it was initially for people in France.

“At first it was very strange for them to see us and they were always avoiding our presence, taking a detour,” said General Éric Chasboeuf, deputy commander of the anti-terrorist military force, called Sentinelle.

“Now, it’s on the landscape,” he said.

Rafale fighter jets, airspace monitoring AWACS surveillance flights, Reaper surveillance drones, helicopters that can carry snipers and equipment to disable drones will police the skies over Paris, which will be closed off during the opening ceremony by a no-fly zone stretching 150 kilometers (93 miles) around the city. capital. Cameras combined with artificial intelligence software – authorized by a law that expands state surveillance powers for the Games – will flag potential security risks, such as abandoned packages or crowd arises,

France is also receiving help from more than 40 countries that, together, sent at least 1,900 police reinforcements.

Attacks by isolated individuals are a major concern, a risk that was recently reported to French authorities by the assassination attempt against Donald Trump.

Some involved in the Olympic security operation were surprised that the gunman armed with an AR-style rifle came within range of the former US president.

“No one can guarantee that there will be no errors. There, however, it was quite blatant,” said General Philippe Pourqué, who oversaw the construction of a temporary camp southeast of Paris housing 4,500 soldiers from the Sentinelle force.

In France, in the last 13 months alone, men acting alone have carried out knife attacks aimed at tourists in ParisIt is children in a park in an alpine town, among others. A man who stabbed a teacher Until his death at his former secondary school in northern France in October, he was under surveillance by French security services on suspicion of Islamic radicalization.

With a long and bitter experience of deadly extremist attacks, France has armed itself with a dense network of police units, intelligence services and investigators specializing in the fight against terrorism, and suspects in terrorism cases can be detained for longer to questioning.

Hundreds of thousands of background scanning they scrutinized Olympic ticket holders, workers and others involved in the Games, and applicants for passes to enter Paris’ most strictly controlled security zone along the banks of the Seine. The checks prevented more than 3,900 people from participating, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said. He said some were flagged for suspected Islamic radicalization, left- or right-wing political extremism, significant criminal records and other security concerns.

“We are particularly attentive to Russian and Belarusian citizens,” Darmanin added, although he did not link the exclusions to Russia’s war in Ukraine and Belarus’ role as an ally of Moscow.

Darmanin said 155 people considered “very dangerous” as potential terrorist threats were also being kept away from the opening ceremony and the Games, with police searching their homes for weapons and computers in some cases.

He said intelligence services had not identified any proven terrorist plot against the Games “but we are extremely vigilant.”

Digital rights advocates fear that Olympic surveillance cameras and AI systems could undermine privacy and other freedoms, and focus on people without permanent homes who spend a lot of time in public spaces.

Saccage 2024, a group that has been campaigning for months against the Paris Games, took aim at the scope of Olympic security, describing it as a “repressive arsenal” in a statement to the Associated Press.

“And this is not a French exception, far from it, but a systematic occurrence in host countries,” he said. “Is it reasonable to offer a month of ‘festivities’ to wealthier tourists, at the expense of a long-term legacy of securitization for all residents of the city and the country?”