Mayor's Competence to Install Surveillance Cameras: An Analysis of Administrative Police Power

Extract

[...] Is the mayor competent to install surveillance cameras in order to to prevent an attack on public order? Mayor: The administrative police is an activity of the administration whose purpose is to prevent, avoid public order disturbances. The judicial police, on the other hand, has the purpose of establishing penal infractions, gathering evidence of the infraction, and possibly identifying the authors of the infraction so that they are sanctioned by the penal court. The general police authorities are at the national level, the Prime Minister and the President of the Republic. [...]

[...] Minor: In this case, the question is whether the mayor can delegate this competence related to public order to a private company. The Council of State's ruling of 29 December 1997 'Commune d'Ostricourt' will recall that it is not possible for administrative police to delegate its activities. Why is it not a technical task? Because it protects the public way. Conclusion: The surveillance of the public way thus falling within the competence of the administrative police, the second decision is therefore legally unimaginable. [...]

[...] Facts: The mayor wishing to install surveillance cameras near the cinema wants to delegate their operation to a private company. This administrative police power can it be delegated to private companies? private individuals? The contractual delegation of video surveillance images constitutes it a an administrative police delegation? Major: The administrative police prohibits delegating the exercise of administrative police to private individuals. Many public services delegate their activities to private individuals, whereas the administrative police cannot do so. It is in a landmark ruling of June rendered in the assembly: 'City of Castelnaudary' that the Council of State confirms: 'the rural police service, by its nature, could only be entrusted to agents placed under the authority of the administration'. [...]

[...] L251-2 of the internal security code Minor In this case, it is a question in the concerned commune of preventing potential violence at the exit of the cinema. In a concern for public safety, a component of public order, the mayor therefore decides to install surveillance cameras around this cinema, within the framework of his general police power aimed at protecting people on public roads. Conclusion : As a result, these acts of violence can harm public order and the mayor has, through the exercise of his general police power, the duty to install surveillance cameras. [...]