With an expert hearing organised with the support of Efus, the mayor of Toulouse kicks off a series of consultations on the opportunity to use CCTV in his city.

Should the city of Toulouse make use of CCTV? Should it develop a first set of cameras in the city centre or rather take them off? Toulouse Mayor and MP Pierre Cohen has decided to tackle the issue with a series of consultations and public debates. National and European experts should be consulted about their views on and experiences with CCTV, so that the city council, the local council on security and crime prevention (CLSPD) and the citizens could subsequently engage into a constructive, reasoned debate until automn. 

Accompanied by a delegation of the city council of a third of its members representing all political parties he received June 24th the honorary president of the National Human Rights League, the president of the French data protection authority CNIL, the national government’s delegate on CCTV, the Efus executive director Mcihel Marcus, as well as academic experts and the representatives of four European cities: London, Bordeaux, Mannheim and Bologna/Emilia Romagna region. 

Following a twenty minute presentation by each expert the members of the city council had the possibility to ask questions for another twenty minutes. The public was invited through representatives of the media and live broadcast through the cities TV channel, immediately accessible for everyone touching on the cities homepage, and a local TV station.

Mr Marcus underlined in his talk the importance of respecting the European texts for the respect of privacy and personnel data and presented the Efus Charter for the democratic use of CCTV. The presentations made at the hearing can be downloaded on the cities website.

Currently a summary report of the hearing on the preventive, ethical, legal, technological and financial questions is being prepared, in writing as well as a film, that will of course be made available on this website. In Toulouse the debate can then go on within the local prevention council, meetings with citizens planned for September and the city council in October.

The hearing, qualified as a success by the city and participating experts, is not only an example of citizen participation and knowledge based urban security policies but also yet another example of how Efus can boost its members’ efforts and how cities help cities.