A French city is to bug the streets of a crime-ridden district, installing audio surveillance devices to relay to police the sounds of attacks or muggings.
Saint-Etienne in central France is to install 50 microphones for a six-month trial. Computers will analyse the audio feeds and alert police to suspicious sounds such as cries or shouting.
Police will be dispatched to the location of suspected crimes while officers in a surveillance centre try to identify muggers or attackers using CCTV images.
The idea was inspired by a US system that uses microphones to detect gunshots. The French system will be more sophisticated, according to authorities, as it will alert police to a wider range of suspicious sounds. It will be tested in the Tarentaize-Beaubrun-Couriot district, which has about 7000 residents.
Some locals have objected to the trial, saying it will be a "Big Brother" system, allowing the authorities to monitor everything they say or do. Jean-Pierre Berger, a local councillor, said: "People should not be worried. We're not going to spy on them."
He said the aim was to create a "smart city" using electronic data to manage infrastructure and resources efficiently. "People's well-being also depends on greater security," he added.
Sebastien Valla, the head of Saint-Etienne's digital and information services, said: "The system will not be able to record conversations. It will only pick up alarming, abnormal sounds such as cries, breaking glass or attacks."
Bernard Mallet, a pensioner who lives in the neighbourhood, said the system was a threat to civil liberties.
"It's an aberration," he told Le Parisien newspaper. "I'm against surveillance. What we need is more police, not 'Big Brother'."
Meanwhile, officials in Nice, where a terrorist attack in 2016 killed 86 people, are testing a facial recognition system.
Christian Estrosi, the right-wing mayor, is lobbying the government for the use of CCTV technology to track those on the terrorism watch list.
