Insecurity in Montpellier. Federation of municipal police: “There is an urgent need to act”

Villainous attacks, including some with knives, wounded by bullets, intentional homicides, theft by trickery, the tearing of telephones and gold jewelry, burglaries of businesses, etc: insecurity worries Montpellier.

The mayor, Michaël Delafosse and eight parliamentarians will be received this Monday in Paris, place Bauveau, by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, who has just received the mayor of Nîmes, Jean-Paul Fournier, for the same request: to obtain reinforcements from Public Security police officers.

The mayor of Nîmes has just obtained the guarantee of the rapid arrival of 13 national police officers. How many in Montpellier?

Read also: Gard. Security: Gérald Darmanin’s response to the mayor of Nîmes

In Montpellier, as in Nîmes, the municipal police are regularly associated with the operations of the national police. “The action of the municipal police must be taken into account and it must be reinforced”, said this Friday, Jean-Michel Weiss, head of the municipal police of Grande-Motte and secretary general of the Autonomous Federation of the municipal police Hérault-Gard.

His observation is clear: “It is clear that delinquency has settled in the heart of Montpellier, even if this is not new, but there are more and more attacks with weapons. There is an urgent need to act ”.

“Simple measures are nevertheless possible and necessary. They would relieve the state police services, strengthen collaboration between the national police and the municipal police ”. – Jean-Michel Weiss, Autonomous Federation of the Hérault-Gard municipal police.

According to Jean-Michel Weiss, “Simple measures are nevertheless possible and necessary. They would relieve the state police services, strengthen collaboration between the national police and the municipal police. All these measures were communicated to the services of the Ministry of the Interior, and recently to the drafters of the White Paper on Security and in particular to the prefect Philippe Galli ”.

Read also: Lack of police officers: the mayors of Montpellier and Nîmes received by the Minister of the Interior

Recommended measures

Here are some of the recommended measures, concerning municipal police officers and rural rangers:
▪ Extend the identity card to all criminal offenses falling within the competence of the municipal police and the rural guards, including those which they cannot verbalize by report, and in particular during arrests in flagrante delicto.
▪ Record all the offenses against the mayor’s police orders (consumption of alcohol on public roads, consumption of nitrous oxide canisters, etc.) through the PVe, and make the amount of these fines more dissuasive .
▪ Simplification of the processing of legal proceedings.
▪ Broaden the competences in matters of contravention during offenses linked to alcohol level.
▪ Authorize them to sanction public and overt drunkenness.
▪ Allow them direct access to the files of stolen vehicles, wanted persons, and the file of insured vehicles.
▪ Encourage and facilitate the pooling of municipal police services.
▪ Merge the employment frameworks of the rural guards with that of the municipal police officers.
▪ Establishment of a municipal police – public prosecutor partnership.

“However, the FA-FPT is not favorable to the evolution of the judicial quality (APJ or OPJ), of the municipal police officers. On the other hand, it demands, on the one hand, a dusting down of the legibility of our skills and it is in favor of obtaining specific skill blocks linked to our local missions, like the granting to the heads of the services of municipal police to order impoundments in 2003, ”notes Jean-Michel Weiss.

He takes this opportunity to clarify that the FA-FPT also wishes to be able to deal with the aspect of pensions, salaries, social security and the indemnity scheme for rural guards and municipal police officers (all categories combined) which remain its main priority.

Read also: Montpellier: unaccompanied minors are rampant on the Esplanade Charles de Gaulle

Un panel de solutions

Jean-Michel Weiss seized the parliamentarians of the Hérault and the mayor of Montpellier who will therefore meet the Minister of the Interior, this Monday in Paris: “I hope that the elected officials can give Gérald Darmanin the book of demands of the FA -FPT in municipal police. This document presents a panel of public security solutions which could quickly be effective, without compromising the sovereign missions of the State and the necessary balance between the State police forces and the municipal police ” .

“Our claims brief presents a panel of public safety solutions that could quickly be effective.” – Jean-Michel Weiss.

Conclusion of the secretary general of this federation: “The FA-FPT awaits with great interest the experimental measures concerning the increase in the skills of municipal police forces announced this summer by the Prime Minister and hopes to be fully associated with this reflection”.

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