On 14 February, an agreement was signed between SNCF President Guillaume Pepy and the Commander-in-Chief of the French National Gendarmerie. By virtue of this agreement, SNCF will benefit from resources enabling the company to monitor railway tracks and infrastructure from the air. The 48 helicopters the Gendarmerie has operating across France – notably its EC 135s equipped with high-performance thermal cameras – will devote 100 hours of flight time to missions combating cable theft. There has recently been a resurgence in the theft of copper cable, causing a number of disruptions to railway operations. It is worth mentioning that metal theft has tripled over the past two years.