PARIS (NEWSnet/AP) — A year ago, Tony Estanguet, head of Paris Olympics, declared that France's capital would be “the safest place in the world” when the Games open July 26.

Today, Estanguet’s forecast looks accurate, with squadrons of police patrolling the city’s streets, fighter jets and soldiers primed to scramble, and installation of security barriers along River Seine.

Instead of building an Olympics park with venues outside the city center, as was done for London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 201, Paris has chosen to host many of the events in the heart of the bustling capital, with others dotted around suburbs. That arrangement makes security more complex.

Paris has a lot to consider to keep more than 10,000 athletes and millions of visitors safe.

A force of up to 45,000 police and gendarmes is also backed up by a 10,000-member contingent of soldiers that has established a military camp, the largest in Paris since World War II. Soldiers should be able to reach any Olympics venue within 30 minutes.

Armed military patrols aboard vehicles and on foot have become common in crowded places in France. For visitors from nations where armed street patrols aren't the norm, the sight of soldiers with assault rifles might be jarring, just as it was initially for people in France.

“At the beginning, it was very strange for them to see us and they were always avoiding our presence, making a detour,” said Gen. Éric Chasboeuf, deputy commander of the counter-terror military force, called Sentinelle. “Now, it's in the landscape.”

France also is receiving help from more than 40 nations that have sent at least 1,900 police reinforcements.

Reaper surveillance drones, helicopters that can carry sharpshooters and equipment to disable drones will patrol from above, in an otherwise no-fly zone extends for about 90 miles near the capital. Cameras coupled with artificial intelligence software, authorized by a law that expands the state's surveillance powers for the Games, will flag potential security risk.

Background checks have scrutinized Olympic ticket-holders, workers and others involved in the Games and applicants for passes to enter Paris' most tightly controlled security zone.

Campaigners for digital rights worry Olympic surveillance cameras and AI systems could erode privacy, and focus on people without fixed homes who spend a lot of time in public spaces. Saccage 2024, a group that has campaigned for months against the Paris Games, describe the Olympics security it as a "repressive arsenal.”

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