Paris (AFP)

Benjamin Griveaux, LREM candidate for the mayor of Paris, wants to create 5,000 municipal police in the capital, "trained", "armed with handguns" and "equipped with pedestrian cameras", he said Tuesday at the AFP.

The aim of this municipal police force will be to "restore order in the Parisian public space", with police officers "neighborhood + hyperproximité +, in relation with the inhabitants, merchants, associations, etc.", and who will be "present in the neighborhood councils", explained the candidate.

Benjamin Griveaux hopes that this municipal police, which was announced for 2020 by the mayor (PS) of Paris Anne Hidalgo, can "unload the national police" some of the missions it currently provides in the capital including those related to "cleanliness , noises, street harassment, street vendors, street rallies, etc ... ".

He insists on the need for "specific training" for these municipal police officers. "We can not put agents of the city in Paris without having trained," he adds. According to him, "it's 120 days of training per agent", or "15,000 euros per agent".

In total, the candidate LREM aims to have, at the end of his term if he is elected in March, "5,000 municipal police trained." "By definition, there will be recruitments", from 3,200 municipal security officers currently to 5,000.

The cost of this project is "100 million euros at a cruising speed," he budgeted.

The candidate LREM wants his municipal police "to be armed with handguns (....) The disarmed agents are targets, I fully assume to arm our municipal policemen, I want to protect those who protect us", he said.

"Every armed policeman will also have a pedestrian camera, it will allow to see how the interpellations go," he added.

A "Parisian security council" will also be created "around the mayor of Paris", he further detailed.

Nothing to do, according to him, with the project of Anne Hidalgo, who announced the creation for 2020 of a municipal police, armed with batons. A municipal police "without training" and "disarmed", denounces Benjamin Griveaux.

The Senate rejected in mid-October an amendment of socialist senators, in the framework of the law Commitment and proximity, aiming at the creation of such a municipal police in Paris. Want to create a municipal police by an amendment "it's marketing", believes Benjamin Griveaux, pointing out that Anne Hidalgo has "long been opposed" to such a policy

© 2019 AFP