Frédérique Thiennot, mayor of Pamiers, and the public prosecutor of Foix Laurent Dumaine signed this March 11 the call to order convention in the town hall of Pamiers. This agreement, initiated in the field of the development of local justice, aims to allow the mayor or his deputies, delegates, to implement, in conjunction with the judicial authority, calls to order to the law. ‘against the perpetrators of acts of incivility and petty crime committed within the jurisdiction of the municipality and which disturb the peace of fellow citizens.
“A new circuit for processing procedures is now set up by the public prosecutor’s office in order to make the response to these acts which constitute a violation of criminal law faster, more efficient and closer to citizens, explain the partners. This measure, which will have the effect of fostering collaboration between the City of Pamiers and the prosecution services, in particular through the recruitment by the prosecution of an assistant lawyer, will strengthen prevention in the face of incivility and petty acts. delinquency”.
Training has already been provided by the assistant lawyer for the benefit of the deputies approached to carry out calls to order. The first measures should be implemented by the end of March. Ms. Thiennot believes that “The first responsibility of the mayor is to ensure the peace of his fellow citizens. This convention is one way to achieve that. It allows a rapid, effective response to disturbances of public order. It also has the virtues of prevention: a last call to order before the sanction ”. For his part, the prosecutor Mr. Dumaine is delighted with this first agreement, within the framework of a local justice that he wants to develop throughout Ariège: “I hope that the mayors of the department who want to be able to participate in the treatment of acts of incivility in direct contact with their fellow citizens”.
Our article devoted to this device, in the Gazette of January 15, 2021
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Reinforcement at the Parquet de Foix to fight against incivility
A native of Ariège, lawyer by training, specialist in international law and teacher-researcher at the University, Abdelmadjid Nedjari joined the Parquet de Foix last December, to occupy one of the 50 assistant legal positions created by the Chancellery for develop local justice. Objectives: to fight more effectively against everyday incivility, in particular by relying on local elected officials.
Zero. This is the number of “calls to order” that were pronounced in the department of Ariège in 2020 by the mayors. However, this device created in 2007 was supposed to generate “a rapid and flexible response to non-criminal acts, likely to cause a disturbance to good order, safety, security or sanitation”. But in view of the statistics, there was undoubtedly something missing to allow local elected officials to fully play their role in the action of justice, and in particular the fight against the famous incivility which rots everyday life. “Low intensity offenses, but which disturb the peace”, continues the prosecutor of the Republic of Foix Laurent Dumaine, when presenting the “Assistant lawyer”.
Because to develop local justice, the executive decided to experiment by providing certain prosecutors with a reinforcement responsible particularly for this aspect. “The plan of the public prosecutor’s office in Foix is to implement a new circuit, faster and in which elected officials who wish to do so can take their full part,” adds the magistrate. Above all, the assistant jurist embodied by Abdelmadjid Nedjari will be able to follow the implementation of the “Call to order” by the mayor, in a wider field of action – including the 4th and 5th category contraventions, as well as certain misdemeanors.
“Pamiers is like all cities of the same size, neither wild nor dangerous, but where the inhabitants are desperate by a multitude of daily troubles, notes Frédérique Thiennot, mayor of the city of Appamean and first volunteer to sign an agreement with the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Foix. Inconvenient parking, noise… generate a strong feeling of insecurity. So we’re not going to deliver justice in place of the state, but I have police powers, and I want to get involved. And being summoned to town hall, with all the decor, can get the message across to offenders ”.
The “short circuit” mentioned by the prosecutor is simple: on the basis of criminal proceedings drawn up by municipal police or internal security forces, the prosecution contacts the town hall concerned by the facts, and the assistant lawyer proposes a “reminder to the order”. Which is carried out by the mayor or an authorized elected official – “in Pamiers, we are already four to wish to do it”, notes Ms. Thiennot. “For my part, I will meet the needs of support for elected officials in the procedure, methodological assistance, I can if necessary attend calls to order,” said Mr. Nedjari. Who will ensure the link with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, if in the event of failure of this first “educational” approach, the offender repeats the acts in question and that a more cumbersome procedure must be initiated.
In the days to come, the Appamean elected officials of the security committee will discuss the priorities to be included in the convention to be passed with the prosecutor, pointing out some of the 350 “eligible” offenses now on call to order. The first mayor’s admonition sessions are scheduled to take place in February.
By then, other municipalities may have come forward to the Parquet de Foix to enter in turn into the loop and benefit from the support of the assistant lawyer. The Prosecutor has already held a first meeting with the office of the Association of Mayors of Ariège, new meetings are being prepared with local elected officials.
A. C.
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