Le Figaro Nantes
Ultra-technological surveillance with eagle eyes - but the memory of a goldfish.
Since the summer, Nazairians have been able to admire 29 brand new video surveillance cameras, installed along and around the Saint-Nazaire bridge, on either side of the Loire estuary.
The operation to modernize this network made it possible to replace aging equipment with state-of-the-art, high-definition devices;
a renewal at 600 million euros financed by the Loire-Atlantique department.
Far from being a security whim, this video arsenal was to make it possible to better monitor an area with a sad reputation, known as a notorious place of suicide.
He could also have played a role in the investigation into the disappearance of Théo Courcoux, who had disappeared near the bridge since December.
It is not so.
Since their deployment in June 2023, the new cameras have not recorded anything.
The guardian angels of the Saint-Nazaire bridge are not blind, however.
“The cameras work well, but only in real time;
the images are monitored live from the departmental roads command post, based in Nantes,”
assures Le
Figaro
a spokesperson for the Loire-Atlantique department, who acknowledges that
“tests”
are still underway on the devices, seven months after their installation.
However, here it is: the full potential of this system - designed to support police investigations - is not yet operational.
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Bureaucratic shuttles
“The cameras work, but they don’t have a hard drive!”
laments – with a yellow laugh – a Nazairian police source.
The police must in fact deal with this constraint, since it is impossible for them to request video archives.
The investigators responsible for finding the trace of Théo Courcoux were thus unable to exploit the images - non-existent - from the cameras of the Saint-Nazaire bridge, report our colleagues from
Ouest-France
.
A frustrating situation, when the necessary equipment perfectly covers the bridge, as well as its ramps and its access interchanges.
The Loire-Atlantique department, however, denies any negligence in this situation which was actually born from... bureaucratic twists and turns.
And for good reason: the proper functioning of the cameras' recording capabilities would have been tested when they were put in place last summer, but a green light from the prefecture was necessary for the start-up of this surveillance system. public highway.
“The authorization request was submitted to the prefectural services in September;
It took them two months to respond to us that they needed additional information.
The latter was sent to them in January
,” the department is told.
The green light is now expected in the coming weeks.