Since the October 17 demonstration and the scenes of chaos that accompanied it, law enforcement agencies have made massive use of drones and helicopters to monitor crowd movements from the air. France 24 takes stock of the rules governing the use of these surveillance devices and the concerns of defenders of public freedoms.

Published on: 07/11/2026 - 06:32

The scene has almost become banal, and the roar that accompanies it familiar. During the inter-union demonstration on November 5, the skies of Paris and several cities in France were cluttered with flying devices deployed by the police or gendarmerie to monitor the protest movement.

In Montpellier, a helicopter even summoned the crowd gathered on the Place de la Comédie to put an end to their demonstration: "Attention, attention, ladies and gentlemen, you are now participating in a crowd. You must disperse and leave the premises", orders a voice broadcast over a loudspeaker from the device. Place de la Nation, the arrival point of the Parisian procession, a drone took care of it.

“A bit dystopian though”

Since the clashes and looting which punctuated the day of demonstration on October 17 and which took the police by surprise, drones and police helicopters regularly fly over the processions, or ensure compliance with the bans on access to certain places decreed by prefectures throughout France.

In Paris, on the night of October 19, a helicopter made rounds above several areas prohibited to the public as part of the partial curfew decided by the police headquarters, such as Les Halles, Place de la République or Avenue des Champs-Élysées. The next day, six aerial drones took over.

Also read Intelligence, personnel, doctrine… the reasons for the failure of maintaining order on October 17

To justify the deployment of these airborne surveillance devices, the Paris police headquarters argues that they represent the best way to “have a wide-angle vision while limiting the engagement of forces on the ground” and assures that “there is no less intrusive device allowing the same ends to be achieved”. The arguments put forward by the other prefectures are similar in every way.

A reasoning that does not convince everyone. On social networks, posts from the police headquarters announcing the deployment of drones or a surveillance helicopter – like here on X on November 5 – are frequently the subject of sarcastic or hostile comments emphasizing their liberticidal nature.

“There is a bit of a dystopian side all the same,” a participant in the Parisian demonstration on November 5 commented to a journalist from the Ebra group, after a drone flying over the Place de la Nation ordered the crowd to disperse. Shortly after this order from the sky, and while squadrons of mobile gendarmes arrived on the square to evacuate the demonstrators, the New World orchestra sang the imperial march, the musical theme which accompanies Darth Vader in each of his appearances in the Star Wars saga.

Also read: Right to demonstrate in France: “It is not up to the president to choose his opponents”

Relaxation of rules

If the deployment of cameras installed on an aircraft is regulated by law – law enforcement must each time request authorization from the prefecture, specifying their number, the geographical perimeter concerned and the duration of surveillance – associations defending civil and digital freedoms have been concerned for several years about the acceleration of their use and the relaxation of the regulatory framework concerning them.

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In an article published on September 9, La Quadrature du Net returns to the Ripost law, adopted in July. Among the multiple components of this text intended to strengthen the State's surveillance capabilities, two concern surveillance drones. Article 7 allows their deployment to prevent “road offenses of particular seriousness due to the disturbances they present for security and public tranquility”, that is to say “urban rodeos”, which were in the crosshairs of the Minister of the Interior Laurent Nuñez during the summer.

More worrying, according to Quadrature du Net, article 42 allows their use without the need for formal prefectural authorization "in the face of a serious emergency situation requiring immediate intervention in order to reinforce the responsiveness and efficiency of the operations carried out while ensuring the safety of agents on the ground".

The association underlines the deliberately vague nature of the wording, which allows prefects to "free themselves from the rules of common law", subject to "regularizing the situation by formal publication of the authorization within the hour". This results, according to Quadrature du Net, in an additional difficulty of "finding out information about the flight of a drone and possibly contesting the legality of the authorization, when this information is already difficult to access".

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Difficult remedies

Because legal recourse exists, and it happens that administrative justice suspends the use of drones. This was particularly the case in Haute-Savoie, a department for which the Grenoble administrative court ruled on November 5 that a prefectural decree allowing surveillance by drones of eight municipalities, including Annecy and Annemasse, "does not appear proportionate to the risks of disturbances to public order, and is likely to cause a serious and manifestly illegal attack on the right to respect for the private life of people located in the sectors concerned", as reported by local media.

However, formulating these appeals is not easy. An article from Mediapart from 2025 highlighted the difficulties that already existed before the Ripost law: "While the demonstrations have been announced for a long time, and the police requests known several days in advance, some prefects wait until the last moment to publish their decree, thus making any appeal very difficult, if not impossible."

Even when they are published on time, the decrees can be hard to spot for the average citizen, who does not necessarily have the reflex to scour the collections on the prefecture site, explains the online media.

Faced with the increasing use of drones or helicopters carrying cameras, part of the political class is sounding the alarm. Questioned by the opposition in the Hemicycle in July, shortly before the adoption of the Ripost bill, Laurent Nuñez defended body and soul the use of drones during demonstrations. Addressing the benches of the left, the Minister of the Interior affirmed that they only aim to "contain the black bloc troops, the very ones who come to disrupt your demonstrations", adding that "without these drones, your demonstrations would not even go to the end, they would not take place".

He was heard by his right: the government bill was adopted shortly after by the Assembly by 366 votes to 182 and 8 abstentions, thanks to the support of the Republicans and the National Rally.

For the demonstration on November 7, the Paris police headquarters has already announced the deployment of a helicopter and drones.

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