Safety in transport

Public transport: controllers can now use a pedestrian camera

Publié le 23 décembre 2025 - Public Service / Directorate of Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

Since December 19, transit controllers have been able to use a pedestrian camera to detect an offense or prevent incidents. 11,000 agents will be equipped in France. The device, tested beforehand by an experiment, is perpetuated by a decree of December 15, 2025 which specifies the modalities.

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Image 1Crédits: Олександр Луценко - stock.adobe.com

The use of pedestrian cameras by SNCF and RATP control agents is part of the the law of 28 april 2025 on enhancing security in public transport.

This possibility to use video and sound recording, which entered into force on 19 December 2025, concerns controllers on trams, buses, metros and trains (including cross-border line controllers).

Screening officers equipped with a pedestrian camera may use this device to:

  • prevent and deter incidents during their interventions;
  • find infringements.

The persons filmed must have been informed orally by the controllers the triggering of a pedestrian camera.

Please note

The obligation to inform a person filmed when a pedestrian camera is triggered does not apply:

  • whether the situation gives rise to an immediate risk of injury to the life or integrity of a person;
  • when committing a flagrant crime or offense, liable to be punished by imprisonment.

In these different situations, the person filmed must be informed of the use of a pedestrian camera as soon as circumstances make it possible to share this information.

The data recorded by the pedestrian cameras are kept for 30 days from the day of registration, then automatically erased they have not been transmitted for the purposes of judicial, administrative or disciplinary proceedings. The videos that have been transmitted are, for their part, kept according to the rules specific to each of these procedures.

Depending on the facts that have been filmed, the videos may be handed over to officers and agents of the national police or the national gendarmerie.

The decree regulating the use of pedestrian cameras by controllers received the favorable opinion of the National Commission for Informatics and Freedoms (Cnil).

Please note

The railway security officers and the internal security services of RATP and SNCF are already equipped with pedestrian cameras.

In addition, an experiment allowed more than 3,000 control agents to test this audiovisual capture device, between 1er July 2020 and 1er October 2024. According to the Ministry of Transport, during this experiment, the use of pedestrian cameras made it possible to:

  • reduce the frequency and intensity of conflict situations;
  • reduce the risks for controllers;
  • better objectify situations of tension or offense and facilitate the collection of evidence in the event of aggression;
  • be used for training and pedagogical purposes.

Now, more than 11,000 controllers will be able to be equipped throughout the country.

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