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New Paris Surveillance Cameras Crack Down On Crime

A first wave of 200 new CCTV cameras were installed in the French capital this week. By next summer, there will be more than 1,000 such surveillance cameras. Still, Paris peeping is nothing compared to London's much bigger version of Big Brother.

By June 2012, 1,455 CCTV cameras will keep an eye on the streets of Paris (ebrkut)
By June 2012, 1,455 CCTV cameras will keep an eye on the streets of Paris (ebrkut)

*NEWSBITES

LES ÉCHOS/Worldcrunch

PARIS - Call it the Parisian police force's version of cinéma vérité. In a major new effort to crack down on street crime, some 200 new CCTV (closed-circuit) surveillance cameras were switched on in the French capital. By June 2012, there are slated to be 1,455 across the city's sprawling neighborhoods, plus additional ones deployed on the banks of the Seine river.

The locations for these new cameras have already been chosen, after consultation with the elected leaders of Paris' "arrondissements' (administrative districts). Location is a sensitive issue: if the first wave of cameras appears to focus on upscale arrondissements, officials promise that eventually "the distribution among districts will be satisfactory."

The 20 district police stations will be equipped with surveillance computers connected to the cameras via 480 kilometers of optical fiber. In addition, 2,500 trained police officers and firefighters will be allowed to view images captured by about 9,500 cameras located in the Parisian metro system and train stations. To allay fears about the protection of privacy, tapes will be destroyed after 30 days and an ethics committee will be created.

So far, the rather obsolete Parisian system of CCTV was mainly devoted to monitoring traffic. Cameras will now help to deter crime and help the police solve cases. Paris is still far behind London and its 65,000 CCTV cameras.

Read the full story in French by Laurence Albert

Photo - ebrkut

*Newsbites are digest items, not direct translations

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Society

Mapping The Patriarchy: Where Nine Out Of 10 Streets Are Named After Men

The Mapping Diversity platform examined maps of 30 cities across 17 European countries, finding that women are severely underrepresented in the group of those who name streets and squares. The one (unsurprising) exception: The Virgin Mary.

Photo of Via della Madonna dei Monti in Rome, Italy.

Via della Madonna dei Monti in Rome, Italy.

Eugenia Nicolosi

ROME — The culture at the root of violence and discrimination against women is not taught in school, but is perpetuated day after day in the world around us: from commercial to cultural products, from advertising to toys. Even the public spaces we pass through every day, for example, are almost exclusively dedicated to men: war heroes, composers, scientists and poets are everywhere, a constant reminder of the value society gives them.

For the past few years, the study of urban planning has been intertwined with that of feminist toponymy — the study of the importance of names, and how and why we name things.

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