Overview
- Authorities report a rapid scale-up, with the gendarmerie operating 965 drones and the police 650 after the national fleet tripled in five years.
- Administrative courts suspended three Seine-Maritime authorizations covering Gonfreville, Le Havre and Rouen following appeals by the Syndicat des avocats de France.
- For the Sept. 10 “Bloquons Tout” action, ADELICO and allied groups counted 82 prefectural orders, about 30 challenges, and roughly a dozen suspensions, including broad orders in Orne and Morbihan.
- Police describe drones as indispensable for major events, border surveillance, tackling urban rodeos, urban violence and drug trafficking, while rights groups warn of a mass deployment with weaker oversight.
- Operations require prefectural authorization, ban sound capture, facial recognition and cross-file matching, and keep images for seven days with missions logged and named telepilots, according to General Philippe Mirabaud.