Michele Alliot-Marie told Le Monde that CCTV networks were relatively undeveloped in France and that new cameras would be used in the fight against terrorism and street crime.
“The latest attacks in London were prevented thanks to their video surveillance system, [which is] ten times more developed than ours,” she said.
The move would see the number of cameras on Paris’s public transport network hit 6,500 in the next two years – compared to a projected 9,000 on the London Underground in the same period.
Official estimates suggest there are already around 340,000 authorised surveillance cameras in France.
Plans to deploy 4ft-long spy drones across French skies in an attempt to tackle the country’s growing problem of gang violence were also unveiled.
The drones, with day-night vision, will be used to track suspects and will begin testing in the country next year. But some local officials have already hit out at the plans.
“Our suburbs are not Iraq,” said Gilbert Roger, mayor of the Paris suburb of Bondy. “We need more police officers on the ground and not machines.”
