When Father Jacques Hamel was brutally killed at his church in northern France this week, the religious community came together, demanding greater protection.
The French government responded by saying it would put more police on the streets and bring in extra security reservists, with French President Francois Hollande announcing a National Guard will be created using existing reserve forces.
There are already 13,000 French military personnel patrolling the streets, and France has steadily increased its security presence since November when multiple attacks in Paris left 130 people dead.
French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said these measures were necessary to appease public concerns. Speaking earlier this month, he said “The fact that the armed forces are visible help to reassure the French people that they are safe both at home and abroad.”
That’s proving a difficult task. France has been in a state of emergency since the Paris attacks. An initial three-month period was extended by six months after the recent attack in Nice, where a man plowed through a crowd with a truck, leaving 84 people dead.
The state of emergency allows police to expedite searches; undertake raids without warrants; put suspects under house arrest; and step up surveillance of electronic devices.
It also puts in place a new “code of conduct” for the media to ensure proper reporting on attacks.
These measures seem drastic in a country that is fiercely protective of its privacy and takes pride in upholding its national pillars of “liberte, egalite, fraternite” (liberty, equality, fraternity). But they are measures the French President says are necessary with the country “at war” against the threat of terror.
Organizations like Human Rights Watch warn the state of emergency “threatens human rights and the rule of law”, and groups like The Index on Censorship raise concerns about press freedom.
But until the beginning of this year, the French public seemed willing to sacrifice some liberties in the name of security. A poll taken by the French Institute of Public Opinion (IFOP) in January, said nearly 80 percent of respondents supported the extension of the state of emergency, fueled by fears of further attacks.
So far, there has been some success, according to authorities. The Prime Minister says the government has thwarted 16 attacks since the Socialist government came to power in 2012, including a potential attack on the Euro 2016 tournament in June and July.
But despite their best efforts, perpetrators are slipping through the state’s fingers. Both of the assailants in the church attack were known to authorities. One was even electronically tagged for surveillance. That attack also came less than two weeks after the attack in Nice.
Now, the President is under increasing political pressure to further toughen laws, while questions arise about the effectiveness of the current state of emergency.
"France is working its tail off and to expect perfect success would be unfair," says Michael O’Hanlon of The Brookings Institution. “That said, there were clearly problems in Nice with how the police were deployed (even if the authorities granted to them were extensive, and fairly significant/sweeping). More generally, there are clearly problems in sharing data across different organizations within France and across Europe. So there is ample room for improvement.”
Security experts say the nature of these attacks makes them more difficult to track. Speaking to The Cipher Brief earlier this month, Patrick Skinner, Director of Special Projects for The Soufan Group and former CIA Case Officer said, “These are real, credible threats and the way our systems are set up, our current counterterrorism measures are not designed for this. They are designed to detect cell-based attacks, communications, and travel. These mechanisms are not designed for this type of one-person attack. Local police aren’t designed to handle this. Nothing is.”
For now, it seems there are few alternatives.
"The state of emergency is a helpful measure but in of itself not sufficient to stop these attacks. The challenge is that tougher measures which might be effective would likely contradict the European court of human rights or the French constitution,” says Jeff Lightfoot, Senior Associate at Jones Group International and The Cipher Brief expert. “Tougher measures which might be effective might require politically tough constitutional revisions."
This week President Hollande urged to the public “to stand together” warning that the war against terrorism "will be long."
But with time, French patience could wear thin.
