Anicet Mbida 7:02 am, January 04, 2022

Every morning, Anicet Mbida gives us the very best in terms of innovation.

Something new in the street surveillance this morning.

After the cameras, we now install microphones and drones to locate screams and gunshots.

It is being tested in several cities in Israel and the United States. Certain sensitive areas have been lined with surveillance microphones. They were installed on lampposts, road signs or on the roofs of buildings. They listen and analyze the surrounding hubbub constantly. As soon as they identify a suspicious noise (gunshots, someone screaming, a broken window or screeching tires and then crumpled sheet metal), they triangulate the position with the different microphones to find out precisely where the incident took place. occurred, and give the alert. 

It allows the police to arrive faster without waiting for a Good Samaritan to warn them.

In the meantime, a drone will take off and position itself as close as possible to the location to film the event and provide as much information as possible to the teams dispatched to the field.

You should know that in Israel there have been more than 5,000 shootings.

But only 500 were actually prosecuted because the police lacked information.

We understand the interest in the police, but that does not pose a problem of privacy?

Yes, exactly !

An equivalent system (without the drones) was to be tested in St-Etienne.

But it has been declared illegal by the Commission Informatique et Libertés (CNIL), because it considers that it is an “unlawful processing of personal data”.

It is true that the system is also capable of capturing each other's conversations.

However, a similar experiment is taking place, at the moment, in the city of Orleans.

But they consider that there is no problem since we are in the public space.

They also believe that with all the noise from the street, it would be difficult to distinguish the conversations.

We will see what the CNIL thinks about it ...

Remember that many cities are interested in this type of surveillance.

But first, we will have to find a legal framework that allows it.