The Conseil d’État, the French administrative highest court, has just issued its decision on our case against surveillance drones deployed by the Parisian Police during the Covid lock-down. This decision is a major victory against drone surveillance. It sets as illegal any drone equipped with camera and flying low enough, as such a drone would allow the police to detect individuals by their clothing or a distinctive sign.
According to the Conseil d’Etat, only a ministerial decree reviewed by the CNIL could allow the police to use such drones. As long as such a decree has not been issued, the French police will not be able to use its drones anymore. Indeed, today’s decision is all about the Covid health crisis, a much more important purpose than those usually pursued by the police to deploy drones.
Other devices from the Technopolice are still being used without a legal framework: automated CCTV, sound sensors, predictive police… This decision gives us the will to continue with our fights.