The subject was not among his priorities until now. However, the environmentalist mayor of Lyon Grégory Doucet announced on Wednesday that he wanted to increase the number of video surveillance cameras in his city by up to 10%. He revealed that he will accept regional subsidies to purchase the new equipment, but also from the State and the metropolis.
“I am going to ask the college of ethics to increase the number of fixed cameras, from 30 to 60 cameras, from next year,” he said in an interview with the regional daily Progress. The “video surveillance ethics college” is a consultative body which intervenes in particular in the event of conflicts surrounding the 571 fixed cameras currently in use in Lyon.
Does not want to “show off” on the subject
The mayor, who will seek a second term in 2026, had until then resisted calls from the right to strengthen video surveillance in Lyon, on the grounds that he first wanted to carry out an “audit” of the system in place.
This is finished and “we have completed the redeployment exercise” of the least useful cameras to new sites, he continues. As “there are still needs, we are buying cameras,” he adds, asserting that he is a “methodical” man and does not want to “show off” on the subject.
Lyon, “one of the best equipped cities in France”
During a visit to Lyon in 2021, Gérald Darmanin, then Minister of the Interior, asked him to “get away from ideology” and strengthen video surveillance in neighborhoods harboring drug trafficking. Grégory Doucet replied that Lyon was “one of the best equipped cities in France”.
Our file on the city of Lyon
Laurent Wauquiez (LR), then president of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, for his part criticized him for not accepting a million euros from the Region to buy new cameras.
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