Service: Suspicious sound detection Saint-Étienne

In Saint-Étienne (pop. 175,000), the city planned to deploy microphones in order to automatically detect suspicious sounds. The project was to be implemented in a poor neighborhood, in coordination with CCTV cameras and an autonomous drone equipped with a camera. The plan was to register all “suspicious” sounds, including things like gunshots but also electric drills, sprays, and whistles (Tesquet, 2019 ; La Quadrature, 2019). The project is on hold after the French data protection authority considered it illegal. The Saint-Étienne microphones would infringe on the privacy of citizens deemed disproportionate, they said (Hourdeaux, 2019a).