Within the RATP security office -

Caroline Politi / 20 Minutes

  • A new type of camera is being tested on the 170 bus, one of the lines with the highest concentration of criminal acts.

  • This device makes it possible to analyze the images in real time.

    Ultimately, RATP would like to use artificial intelligence to exploit these images.

  • Several brief experiments have already taken place.

Will an algorithm soon be able to detect a suspicious package in an RER A, a fight on the platform of a station or even a woman victim of sexual harassment during her bus journey?

In any case, this is the wish made this Thursday morning by Valérie Pécresse.

"Artificial intelligence without personal identification must be able to be deployed quickly in public transport, not necessarily by a law, the government must get wet", insisted the president LR of the Ile-de-France region and of Ile-de-France Mobilités, on the sidelines of the presentation by RATP of a new type of CCTV cameras.

The relationship with artificial intelligence?

So far, none.

This device, which has been tested for a few weeks in three buses of line 170 connecting the Porte des Lilas to Saint-Denis - on the "podium" of the lines recording the most acts of delinquency - has the specificity of transmitting in real time the images of PC security surveillance.

The agents present can thus modulate the interventions according to the difficulties encountered.

Send a small team here to intervene on incivilities or, on the contrary, to expand the response when the situation seems more difficult to control.

"This also makes it possible to limit false alerts and not to mobilize teams from the GPSR [network protection and security group] for nothing," notes RATP director Catherine Guillouard.

Several experiments with artificial intelligence

But the transport authority hopes to eventually be able to rely on artificial intelligence to refine this video surveillance system.

"In practice, it would suffice to add a program to filter the images, for example to identify sudden gestures that could be those of a fight, people entering through the back door ...", specifies the senior official.

In short: an algorithm would allow more efficient processing of images by directing the operator without overloading the security PC.

And this, especially since this device will be deployed by September 2021 across the entire line, i.e. six cameras in each of the 30 buses.

For several years now, RATP has nurtured the idea of ​​using artificial intelligence to improve safety in public transport.

Several experiments have been carried out in this direction.

Last May, cameras capable of detecting the presence of a square of fabric on the face had been deployed in the Châtelet-les-Halles station in order to measure proper compliance with wearing a mask.

A test finally aborted after a month, the National Commission for Information Technology and Freedom (CNIL) estimated that the "right of opposition" which allows to refuse to be filmed was not guaranteed.

Another experiment on suspicious packages was carried out, but this time it was the margin of error, greater than 10%, which did not make the test conclusive.

Prohibition on appearing in public transport

While waiting for a possible authorization, Valérie Pécresse said she was in favor of the creation of an additional penalty of prohibition to appear in public transport for repeat offenders.

"It has almost eliminated the violence of the stadiums," insisted the president of the Ile-de-France region.

Since the end of the first confinement, acts of delinquency have sharply increased in public transport.

In September alone, pick-pocketing jumped by 18%, notes the director of RATP, adding that the absence of tourists in the capital had probably pushed mafia networks that operated near the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower or on the Champs-Elysées to descend underground.

Valérie Pécresse also called for the possibility for GSPR agents to have access to the identity file.

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