To combat road incivilities, the use of video enforcement has been extended to the entire urban network of the city of Bayonne.
Since September 2021, Bayonne City Council has been using a new method of combating dangerous behaviour on the road and parking violations, which are regularly observed in the three city centre districts of Saint-Esprit, Grand Bayonne and Petit Bayonne, using video enforcement.
The principle is simple: the municipal police use the network of video surveillance cameras, now installed along most public road networks, to remotely issue tickets to offenders. By continuously capturing the movements of road users, without intercepting them, law enforcement officials can more easily punish drivers who do not respect traffic regulations.
To keep proof of the infraction, the officer records the licence plate and screenshots that will be used in the event of a dispute. The police officer issues the electronic ticket and transfers it to the national processing centre. The vehicle owner receives it by post a few days later.
On its website, the Basque town hall indicates that, "this procedure is an innovative, appropriate and dissuasive way to reduce the offences regularly observed in the town centre". Carried out using cameras already installed, it now operates within a perimeter indicated by information panels. The operation of the video enforcement systems is common to all devices, and reduces information processing times.
According to the website
https://www.securite-routiere.gouv.fr, more than one hundred municipalities have used this ticketing method since the first experiments using this process in 2008.
