45,000 police, 18,000 soldiers: A look at Paris Games security
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00:00I mean there's a bit because there's been so much talk about the security we need to talk about it because there's tonight
00:04There'll be no flights over Paris. There's
00:0745,000 police officers that's throughout the games add to that 18,000 soldiers
00:122,500 private security agents they have the numbers for you
00:15And of course you've also got a hundred divers who are going through the river scent to check whether there aren't any mines
00:20I mean that is going to create some some sort of climate of fear Doug
00:24Look, I mean or is it reassurance?
00:26Well, it's both but I mean they've pulled out all stops because as we've said it was an audacious idea the first time
00:32Right, it's being held outside a stadium along a six kilometer, you know
00:36Trajectory here and the in these boats for a four-hour ceremony. There's a lot to secure
00:41I mean they're expecting what 330 upwards of
00:45330,000 spectators in sort of that inner gray zone, right?
00:48And so we're talking about we're not just talking about the upper banks above the Sen which are a little further removed, right?
00:54I'm a lower banks. We're gonna have the more high VIP priority seating which is about a hundred thousand people
01:00Think of all of the vantage points from you have 94 boats going down the Sen, right?
01:05You have some 200 delegations almost 200 countries represented, you know, there are a lot of you know
01:12Not to be glib here, but opportunities for someone who doesn't have the best interest of these Olympics in mind
01:18The the bottom line is it is impossible to secure an event an outside event of this nature in such a compact city
01:24Which has the Sen as its centerpiece going past all of these world-known iconic monuments
01:29You can't really do it. But these numbers are as you said meant to show that they are pulling out all stops
01:34They are going doing their utmost bringing in police forces from everywhere. So NYPD New York police on the streets
01:41I mean literally they are bringing them alongside South Korean police
01:44I don't think there's ever been an event in Paris where you've had such a mix of
01:49International law enforcement officers all at once look bottom line
01:53You it's impossible to seal airtight Paris a city of this kind on two banks divided by a
02:01Large river can't do it. But this is definitely perhaps the most you can do
02:05I mean, I've been walking around the streets of Paris in the past week like Francois. I don't have that Golden Pass either
02:11You cannot you can not get past those metal barriers those barricades doesn't matter that press pass
02:18My press pass is basically nothing. Yeah, and you've got so many to be able to get a snicker at it
02:24Yeah, is this something James that can kind of just bother the athletes in a way?
02:28I mean, I know they're in their village boots. There's just about accessibility and all is that gonna get into their heads a little bit? No
02:35No, just the athletes don't care they are in the village and that venue and
02:41With their competitors and with their teammates this they're not even thinking about it. They're not thinking about the security risks
02:49They're not thinking about the politics. They're not thinking about
02:51Tourism they're not thinking about finance. No, it won't even
02:56Register for one millisecond. They are just thrilled
03:00For the biggest sporting moment in their life and James if I may just when I look at those numbers on your screen there
03:07Doesn't jump out to me as strange
03:09I mean
03:10There's a market trend with the Olympics that local and national police forces
03:14Essentially use the games like their own private cash machine to get all the special weapons and laws
03:19It would be very difficult to get during normal political times
03:22The question for me is what happens when the games end, you know
03:27They got AI powered video surveillance special for the games and it's supposed to sunset in March 2025
03:34But it doesn't take the imagination of an avant-garde poet to conjure scenarios by which the police tell us we thwarted this attack and that attack
03:41Therefore we really need to keep this AI powered video surveillance and this isn't just a kind of neat little technology
03:47There are a lot of false positives
03:48So one legacy of the Olympics should they decide to keep this AI powered video surveillance?
03:53Which isn't that great on race yet in terms of its calculations. You could have in your wake a
03:59heavily racialized
04:01technology that is left and becomes the new normality and I say that as someone from the United States that already has a pretty serious
04:06racialized policing problem