Paris 2024: Olympic law calls for body scanners and shops to reopen on Sundays

In the run-up to the Paris Games, security is obviously at the center of public authorities’ attention. Faced with a security challenge presented by the event, in particular the unprecedented open-air opening ceremony on the Seine, the text of the law, introduced on Thursday, allows the use of an artificial intelligence system that can detect the movements of suspicious crowds. in or around stadiums, on public roads and in vehicles.

Long declared by Olympic Inter-Ministerial Delegate Michel Cadot, back in late May after the C1 final incidents at the Stade de France, this would be an “experiment” for “recreational, sporting or cultural events subject to a “risk of terrorism” or “serious harm to people’s safety.”

These experiments will be authorized by decree after consultation with the CNIL (Commission Informatique et Libertés) and can start from the moment the law enters into force until June 30, 2025. “They don’t use any biometrics, they don’t do any facial recognition. technology and cannot carry out any reconciliation, interconnection or automatic linkage with other processing of personal data, ”the explanatory note to this text of 19 articles says. The executive has been saying for months that he does not want to use facial recognition in the context of the Olympics.

In another innovation, body scanners, which have so far only been used at airports, will be allowed at the entrance to the enclosures of more than 300 people with the consent of the person. This avoids being searched by security, while the Olympic Games organizers and the state face a shortage of private security guards.

The text also provides for verification measures, i.e. an administrative investigation, against members of the delegations who will reside in the Olympic Village, as well as volunteers and service providers, including those who will interfere in the fan zones. It empowers the Prefect of Police of Paris, Laurent Nunez, with powers in all departments of Ile-de-France from July 1 to September 15, 2024.

It also strengthens sanctions in the event of violence in stadiums, in particular in cases of recidivism or violence in assemblies. Similarly, stadium injunctions become mandatory for certain offences.

It provides that in the municipalities where competition sites are located or bordering them, the prefect may allow the opening of shops for goods or services on Sundays from June 1, 2024 to September 30, 2024.

Access to Parliament in January

The date of passage of this text in the parliament is not yet planned, but several political sources name the month of January. This is also the period during which Parliament will have to debate the Accounts Chamber’s report on the Olympic Games, as stipulated by the previous Olympic law passed in 2018.

In order to comply with international anti-doping rules, the text provides for the sole duration of the Olympic Games and in limited cases (research for the introduction of homologous blood, substitution of samples taken, genetic mutation in the gene involved in the performance, or manipulation of genetics) and, as a last resort, “the performance of tests consisting of examining the genetic characteristics or comparing the genetic fingerprints of athletes.”

It also legitimizes the establishment of an APHP-run clinic for athletes in the Olympic Village itself and the intervention of foreign doctors, such as those belonging to international federations. Parking permits issued by the Prefect of Police will also be available for wheelchair accessible taxis.

The text also contains a provision that regulates the advertising of Olympic sponsors in the municipalities that will host or through which the torch relay will pass, and adapts the provisions of the 2018 law on this matter. The organizers of the Paris Olympics have not yet completed a round table of their sponsors, one of three sources of funding (from ticket revenue and the IOC contribution) and expect 1.2 billion euros.