A team of three municipal police officers is mobilized in three municipalities in the Pays-Haut: Tressange, Angevillers and Fontoy. They are systematically two on the ground.
The municipality of Tressange raised its finger several years ago for the jurisdiction of the municipal police of Thionville to extend to its streets. “We no longer saw the gendarmes. And the population asks us a lot for neighborhood disputes, speeding, parking, town planning…”, justifies Pascal Fouquet, first deputy in charge of security.
Since September 2023, a patrol has been crisscrossing the village four hours a week, fifty-two weeks a year. Without a fixed day, police interventions are random. Six months later, the municipality’s investment, amounting to 15,000 euros per year, seems to be paying off. “We have very good feedback,” assures Pascal Fouquet.
Before each vacation, the elected official briefs the pair of municipal police officers on the needs, the feedback from the inhabitants. It is always the same faces that intervene in the communes of the Pays-Haut. Christophe and Jean-Pierre, experienced police officers in Thionville, volunteered to expand their missions.
“To each his own work”
“At the start, we did a lot of dusting,” explains Christophe, in service at Tressange. Lots of education too. At each service, the police stop at the school, in the large parking lot used by the parents, transformed into an anarchic, even dangerous drop-off for the children.
Last Monday, they also reminded a resident, rue de la Chapelle, that his car has nothing to do on the sidewalk. The problem is obviously recurring. The crew also filmed in the neighborhood where several burglaries have taken place in recent days. They carried out a speed control on the RD59 where the cars have a tendency to get carried away. Speed is one of the black spots: it has just been reduced to 30 km throughout the village since the end of January. Tressange is crossed by two departmental roads very popular with cross-border commuters: “Five thousand vehicle days for one, eight thousand for the other”, details the first deputy. The police carry out regular checks. “The municipality does not intervene in the verbalization, each one his work”, recalls Pascal Fouquet.
The interventions carried out during the weekly sessions are listed in a daybook. “After a year of exercise, we will draw up a report in the municipal council”, announces the first deputy. The niche could well expand. If the budget allows.
Meeting the needs of mayors and residents
The municipal police of Thionville first merged with that of Terville in June 2018. A crew is permanently posted to the adjoining town.
Manom entered the loop in November 2020. This time, no merger. The municipal police provide a patrol for two hours a day. Since September, the villages of Fontoy, Angevillers and Tressange, in the Pays-Haut, have benefited from the same agreement and pay for the intervention of the police according to the hours when they intervene. Tressange asks for four hours of attendance per week. Fontoy eight and Angevillers two. “The objective is to relieve the mayors, to solve the problems that they cannot solve alone”, explains Laurent Cavalieri, director of the intermunicipal police. Road checks, waste, illegal constructions, neighborhood problems: the missions of the police are varied. “They do what the gendarmes can no longer provide due to lack of time and staff”, summarize the elected officials in the field.
The law facilitates the project
The multi-municipal police have been able to expand their scope of action without hiring. The City of Thionville has complied with the legal working time regime imposed by law, which increases the hours of municipal employees.
Another text facilitates the task: since May 2021, the law authorizes the extension of the multi-municipal police within an inter-municipality, without territorial continuity. In other words, no longer need to touch one of the six municipalities concerned to request the services of the municipal authorities.
