The internal investigation aimed to investigate the illegal use of BriefCam video sequence analysis software by the police. It turned out to illustrate by example the purchase and implementation, to say the least, erratic of cutting-edge technological tools in terms of security, between legal vacuum, inconsistent implementation and questionable use.
November 14, 2023, the online information site. Disclosed publishes a long article that evokes the illegal use, since 2015, by the police and gendarmerie, of software published by the Israeli company BriefCam, a “solution” that allows automating the analysis of video streams. It has a facial recognition function, the use of which is still prohibited in France.
Ten days later, on instructions from the then Minister of the Interior and Overseas Territories, Gérald Darmanin, his chief of staff, Alexandre Brugère, ordered the opening of an internal investigation. A year later, the report of this mission was published online, on Monday, October 28, without much publicity. The mission, with a particular conception of the notion of independence, is certainly entrusted to two members of the general inspection of the administration but also to four senior officers of the police and gendarmerie, institutions that use the famous software.
“General ignorance”
Its conclusions clearly evoke a single case of implementation of the facial recognition function, introduced in BriefCam in 2018 and withdrawn in 2024, under illegal conditions, during the summer riots of 2023. Certainly, too often, the report admits, a venial sin since “The use of this facial recognition functionality has not (…) “did not give rise to any accusations against the people initially suspected of being registered in the procedure.”. Except this illegal use may not be the only one because “The mission was unable to physically perform a computer verification of possible activation by user services of the facial recognition functionality of the BriefCam software”.
The report also raises other questions. “General ignorance, in the services, of the existence of this digital solution”random updates, inconsistent implementation in untrained services, assignment of the software to the general inspectorate of the national police without any expression of need on their part – the purchase and then the implementation of BriefCam was carried out under conditions, to say the least, opaque , if not incoherent, what question? “the return on investment of expensive software”.
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