How Many Demonstrators? The Cafés of Statistics - Evening of 10 November 2015. Counting demonstrators is a subject of debate in France, among the organizers of demonstrations, primarily trade unions, and the services of the Interior Ministry. Estimates regularly vary widely from multiples of one to four. The Prefect of Police of Paris in 2014 brought together a committee of three persons to evaluate official counting methods. These methods, which are traditional – counting “on sight” by police officers – were deemed reliable by the commission. Resolving differences would imply being able to establish a sharing of information between stakeholders and the establishment of trust that seems to have been compromised in the past.
