Five months before the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the news was cause for concern.
A bag containing a computer and two USB keys which would have contained the security plans for the Paris Olympic Games by the municipal police was stolen Monday evening from a Gare du Nord train.
Le Parisien takes stock of this affair.
What happened ?
Early Monday evening, an engineer from Paris town hall filed a complaint at a police station in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, near the Gare du Nord.
Less than an hour earlier, this forty-year-old had boarded a train bound for Creil (Oise).
When he wanted to change trains, he discovered that his bag, which he had placed above his seat, had disappeared.
Two investigations were opened.
One was entrusted to the judicial police.
A second, for theft on public transport, is carried out by the Transport Network Security.
What did the bag contain?
The stolen bag carried "a professional computer" as well as two USB keys "which contained sensitive data", according to the complainant's explanations.
By filing a complaint, he claimed that this computer equipment held the security plans for the Paris 2024 Olympics by the municipal police.
In the corridors of the town hall, it is rumored that he mentioned “confidential data” so that the police would act more quickly to find his equipment.
Read alsoOJ 2024: traffic restrictions, exemptions… The contours of the security system
This Wednesday, the City of Paris refutes these statements after having carried out investigations jointly with the police headquarters.
“The agent was not in possession of any information relating to the organization and deployment of law enforcement during the Olympic and Paralympic Games,” underlines the town hall.
His material “contained notes taken for internal use, relating to his work on the IT mission of the roads and travel department,” adds the City.
This Wednesday, the Paris prosecutor's office clarified to Le Parisien that these notes were "related to traffic in Paris during the Olympic Games, and not to sensitive security devices."
How did the City of Paris react?
Following this alert, the City set up a crisis meeting.
“All of the necessary resets were carried out in order to cut off all access to the City’s computer system,” she says.
In the corridors of City Hall, employees did not hide their dismay at this “quack”.
Internally, an investigation was entrusted to the general inspection of the City of Paris “in the face of proven breaches of internal security procedures”.
Sanctions may be taken depending on its conclusions.
Traffic restrictions, drones... organizing such an event requires major arrangements.
Security, and in particular that of the ambitious opening ceremony on the Seine, continues to be at the center of concerns, against the backdrop of the terrorist threat and the situation in the Middle East after the Hamas attacks against Israel .
The City plans to mobilize a workforce of 2,000 agents from the municipal police department for the Olympics, scheduled from July 26 to August 11.