For nearly a month, the Toulouse national police have redeployed their staff on the ground through pedestrian and bicycle patrols.
“Being visible” and “getting closer to the population” are the new leitmotifs of public security officials in Haute-Garonne.
A return of the local police who had been crucified in 2003 in Toulouse by the Minister of the Interior at the time, Nicolas Sarkozy.
For three weeks, they have swapped unmarked or screen-printed cars for land or bicycle patrols.
And it has nothing to do with the gasoline shortage.
Toulouse police officers respond to the government's new policy in the fight against delinquency by saturating public space with their presence.
Being visible is the new watchword of the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin.
Whether in the markets, in the metro, the shopping streets but also the new districts like the Cartoucherie, the police in uniform are deployed at 91 points in the Pink City, but also in Blagnac, Tournefeuille, Saint- Gaudens or Tournefeuille.
A change of tactics that has an air of deja vu and furiously resembles what was put in place in 1998 by Jean-Pierre Chevènement: local policing.
But in February 2003, on a visit to Toulouse, Nicolas Sarkozy, then Minister of the Interior, tackled under the eye of the cameras the departmental director of the national police at the time, Jean-Pierre Havrin, and pilloried the concept of “pol prox”.
The future President of the Republic, for whom "the best prevention is punishment", then launched a new era of security policy, more focused on intervention than prevention.
"It's a return of proximity" according to the boss of the Toulouse police
For two decades, the term “local police” was banned from the vocabulary of French public security officials.
In 2008, neighborhood territorial units (Uteq) made their appearance, a resurgence that did not last long, quickly replaced by field surveillance brigades (BST).
Since 2017, the concept of “everyday security police” has reappeared.
And with the deployment of patrols on the ground in recent weeks, "it's a return of proximity", confirms Jean-Cyrille Reymond, departmental director of public security for Haute-Garonne.
“For forty years, the police have moved from the island, to the intervention police, to the local police.
We are now on a vision where we only come out of an intervention police.
It is not only the sensitive sectors that must see the police, those where the population does its shopping and carries out its daily life must also see the police, that they are more in contact with the population, ”continues the boss of the Toulouse police.
i ️ The delinquency figures for the month of September in Haute-Garonne bear witness to this:
➡️ 27 attacks in transport against 58 last year (-53.45%)
➡️ 125 thefts with violence against 168 in 2021 (-25.60% ) pic.twitter.com/3JyNECaHXY
– Prefect of Occitania and Haute-Garonne (@PrefetOccitanie) October 12, 2022
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Being visible is therefore the new watchword, day and night, without leaving any ground on clearly identified deal sites either.
“It's a new way of occupying the territory.
And it is already having an impact.
In September, compared to September 2021, violent thefts decreased by 25% and violence in transport decreased by 53.45%.
The activity of the police services in terms of rodeos has jumped by 363% and lump sum anti-drug fines by 85% ", displays the prefect of Haute-Garonne, Etienne Guyot, who sees the direct consequences of this new strategy. .
91 points targeted
With an emphasis on public transport in recent days, playgrounds popular with delinquent pickpocketing enthusiasts.
“We have 2,300 annual crimes in public transport, 65% of which relate to theft.
Mainly, pickpocketing, like taking a phone out of a pocket, a wallet.
There is relatively little violence, it is around 10%.
Yesterday we carried out a major control operation with Tisséo which made it possible to verify the situation of 500 passengers and to discover that 14 people had not paid for their trip and we to make an arrest, ”explained divisional commissioner Patrick Caron on Wednesday. , Head of the Public Order Service of the National Police.
Operations that will be multiplied by the 80 patrols that circulate daily in Toulouse.
“For each of them, we are going to set him one or more missions to cover a maximum of the 91 points that we have targeted.
The means are the same but the patrols will be done differently”, concludes Jean-Cyrille Reymond who benefited from the reinforcement of 93 of the 111 police officers promised in 2020 by Jean Castex within the framework of the security contract.
Today, the national police force has 1,650 civil servants in Haute-Garonne, two-thirds of whom are on the public highway and one-third in charge of the judiciary.
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