Gendarmerie nationale

The explanatory memorandum to Senate bill no. 66 (registered 22 October 2025, accelerated procedure, lead sponsors Pierre Jean Rochette and Claude Malhuret) describes LAPI devices, fixed or mobile, as "l'ensemble des algorithmes permettant la lecture automatisée d'une plaque d'immatriculation", used to prevent and prosecute offences "par les douanes, la police nationale et la gendarmerie nationale"; it says use is limited to an exhaustive list of offences and that data are kept for 15 days, or one month after a positive match. The bill would replace the list with a threshold of offences punishable by at least five years' imprisonment (and vehicle theft), extend retention to one month, or two months after a match, and require automated plate reading in public-road video protection systems from 1 January 2028, which the memorandum says would apply only as old equipment is renewed. The Senate adopted the text on 17 December 2025 (texte adopté no. 32, 2025-2026); press reports (L'Automobiliste, 16 July 2026; Journal du Geek, 11 September 2026) say it awaits the Assemblée nationale and give roughly 600 to 650 devices nationwide with a goal above 5,000, a count the Senate text does not give. The CNIL's RU-010 page says the devices were created experimentally by an arrêté of 2 March 2007, fitted in police and gendarmerie vehicles, and made permanent by an arrêté of 18 May 2009. This record concerns the Gendarmerie nationale's own use; the Police nationale and customs have their own records, and no vendor is named.