2023-12-04 06:00:00
The episodes of violence, which took place last June and July, were a real shock for public opinion and public authorities, on several levels. First, the geographical scope with 66 departments and 516 municipalities concerned [1]. Then, unprecedented modus operandi by targeting the police but also elected officials of the Republic. Finally, the very rapid move to action by rioters and the sudden decline in acts of violence, which is partly explained by the massive and rapid deployment of law enforcement. The presence of the latter on public roads reinforces daily safety. What was to be demonstrated (CQFD).
However, a recent report indicates that police stations are saturated with files and procedures awaiting resolution. [2]. The figures speak for themselves: 2.7 million old files and 3.5 million new procedures recorded in the same year. The police services are thus completely clogged with files linked to daily delinquency such as burglaries, assaults but also more serious assaults and injuries. The equation seems to be complicated for the Ministry of the Interior, which wants to strengthen the police presence on the streets but must also unclog police stations saturated with cases. However, it is not insoluble.
LOPMI, an ambitious law geared towards digital
The Ministry of the Interior’s Orientation and Programming Law (LOPMI) plans to strengthen the number of law enforcement officers [3]. Promulgated in January 2023, the LOPMI has a major objective: making the presence of national police officers and gendarmes on the ground the rule, and time at the police station or brigade the exception. For “put more blue on the street”, the Ministry of the Interior is also counting on the digital transformation of the operational activity of its agents in the field through the deployment of tailor-made digital tools for national police officers and gendarmes. This is also the meaning to be given to LOPMI which stands out as a ” numerical revolution “ opening up new digital possibilities for internal security forces.
The establishment of the criminal fixed fines (AFD) procedure operates this double digital and operational shift. AFDs allow law enforcement to report offenses directly on public roads, in flagrante delicacy. This procedure is made possible thanks to mobile digital equipment made available to law enforcement, called NEO. This terminal allows national police officers and gendarmes to access their professional applications at any time and anywhere. It guarantees a high level of security and therefore allows you to write an electronic report via a dedicated application and to establish an AFD in the street.
The ambition of the AFD is twofold: to reduce the volume of simple disputes which generate burdens throughout the criminal justice chain thanks to the elimination of any recourse to the courts, and to fight once morest offenses which deteriorate the daily lives of citizens by generating insecurity (use of narcotics, illegal occupation of building halls and driving without a license). Making police officers and gendarmes more mobile on public roads and closer to citizens is the meaning of this AFD procedure.
Digital: greater operational efficiency
Building on the success of the NEO mobile equipment, mentioned above, the Ministry of the Interior wants to go further with the deployment of a new generation, called NEO 2. The NEO 2 have batteries and a calculation and better quality memory, which goes in the direction of greater use on the street for law enforcement. They offer additional radio communications capabilities via the Future Radio Network (RRF) with the provision of 4G or 5G speed prioritized for security force communications. Ultimately, the technologies offered by the RRF will also make it possible to consult more data in real time on public roads and better interoperability with other security-producing actors such as municipal police and their urban supervision centers (images from video protection).
Finally, digital technology can also make it possible to develop the presence of law enforcement on the ground, as evidenced by the Ubiquity system deployed by the national gendarmerie to strengthen its territorial roots and its link with the population. These are laptops that can be connected anywhere, both to the gendarmerie network and to a traditional WiFi network. This digital tool has functionalities for drafting procedures in mobility on public roads, in France Service spaces, in hospitals or victims’ homes for example, thus facilitating the filing of a complaint, the hearing of a witness or the reporting of offenses. Beyond the role it plays in strengthening the presence of law enforcement on the ground, digital technology makes it possible to offer a new form of relationship between law enforcement and the population. This is a paradigm shift, from reception in unity to a dynamic of” move towards “ the citizens.
An integrated chain covering all business actions
The action of law enforcement on public roads must be ensured by a continuum of digital services. This must follow a logic of “integrated chain” covering all the professional actions that a police officer or gendarme can carry out in the field. This can result, upstream, in consulting police files on public roads and feeding police files with information resulting from a verbalization within the framework of an AFD, for example. This “integrated chain” must offer more action possibilities to law enforcement on public roads (taking fingerprints, for example) and be adapted to their operational constraints with a limited number of equipment, ideally integrated into NEOs or modular and on-board.
On patrol or islanding, it will ultimately be a matter of collecting and processing ever more information and data in real time. Several avenues for reflection exist, such as voice-controlled tools (possibility of dictating the references of a license plate rather than entering them, etc.), or even the improvement of operations management tools « command and control » (C2) benefiting from reliable geolocation of law enforcement and events, and a 3D data visualization software suite. The gains for territorial and local security policies and strategies would therefore be significant.
Likewise, if we wish to encourage real-time consultation of more information from police files on NEO mobile equipment, we must think regarding the way in which this information is displayed on this equipment to allow comfortable consultation on screens. of reduced size with the key contextual information strictly necessary for securing interventions (what to do if a dangerous person is present, facial photo, etc.).
Finally, we must rely on the most recent technological innovations in AI to develop around the NEO 2, for example, voice command bricks that go beyond existing solutions. « speech to text » allowing the writing of simplified reports by voice or even thinking regarding long-term interoperability with other innovative mobile equipment such as connected glasses (XR/VR glasses).
Ethical and security issues
A reflection on the regulatory framework for these new uses must be considered upstream. The question of data consulted and transmitted is a key issue, in an evolving context, and their control must be systematized with regard to the operational purposes targeted by the police and according to a principle of proportionality.
Thus, reflection on the contribution of digital tools to public security reveals the question of the balance between the ever-increasing demand for efficiency of the police and the gendarmerie, and the necessary strengthening of regulations to data protection. The challenge is therefore to identify solutions allowing operational gains while not compromising on the protection of data and their proper use by law enforcement, which are all fundamental principles of our society.
Furthermore, it is important not to minimize the issue of the risk of theft of more numerous mobile equipment and which poses significant ethical issues, considering the access to sensitive data that this equipment allows today and even more in the long term (data listing people implicated in criminal cases, etc.). Remote deactivation systems must be strengthened and systematized, as this security aspect must not be left aside.
Finally, who says digital, says system security and cyber attack. The multiplication of operations carried out by law enforcement agencies outside their units calls for reflection on the integration of the basic technical layers of mobile equipment. Indeed, the latter are essential to the proper functioning of mobile equipment, the IT security of which must be continuously monitored, or even reinforced. The objective is to prevent misuse, unauthorized use, modification or misappropriation of these digital tools and the data concerned.
To reconcile the objectives of visible presence on public roads, performance of everyday security offerings and effective criminal response, it is therefore appropriate to continue the deployment of adapted, tailor-made and secure digital tools for more services. and proximity to citizens, while ensuring respect for data protection and their proper use by law enforcement, two fundamental principles of our society.
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[1] Against 25 departments and 200 municipalities during the 2005 riots.
[2] Police stations saturated with 2.7 million backlogs of procedures (lemonde.fr)
[3] 7,390 additional police officers and gendarmes by 2027, plus 238 new gendarme brigades in rural and peri-urban areas. The operational reserve of the national police should increase from 6,000 to 30,000 personnel and that of the gendarmerie from 50,000 to 60,000 personnel.
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