Le Mesnil-Saint-Denis, a green commune in Yvelines, within the Haute-Vallée de Chevreuse regional natural park, has everything to be a pleasant place to live. But for several months, the atmosphere has not been so peaceful in this city of almost 7,000 inhabitants. At issue: a bad relationship between a new elected official and a municipal police officer.
Daily ticketing quota, inventory of uninhabited houses, cancellation of tickets… These practices worried the National Union of Municipal Police Officers (SNPM), which then alerted the Yvelines police and judicial authorities.
“Our union has been informed of practices, to say the least astonishing, and in any case, illegal, requiring our rapid intervention,” specifies Patrick Leger, member of the SNPM board. It seems that an elected official takes some liberties with the laws and regulations in force on French territory. “
“This practice must be considered as an abuse of power”
In the letter sent to the prefect of Yvelines, to an officer of the public prosecutor and to the prosecutor of the Republic of Versailles, the union mentions in particular the distribution of a “letter to residents of an avenue, with a view to canceling tickets regularly observed by municipal police officers ”.
In it, a list identifies several contraventions “eligible” to the device, while evoking an “excess of zeal carried out by a personal initiative apart from the instructions of the mayor”, can one read in the letter sent to the inhabitants.
“This practice must be considered as an abuse of power, this gentleman having no legal competence to cancel any contravention, but also, of an interference in a public service”, reacts the union.
You had to issue at least ten tickets a day
The story continues when one of the three municipal police officers of the city receives the request to establish “a list of all the uninhabited houses in the municipality and then to consult the land register in order to obtain the contact details of their owner and to contact them. to find out the reasons for their absence and their probable return date ”.
Other requests were quickly added, such as a minimum quota of ten verbalizations per day, a verbalization project per circuit, numerous calls from the elected representative to warn vehicles and places where an offense was observed, the verbalization of parents of ‘pupils gathered in front of the schools, at the time of exit and entry.
Newsletter The essential of 78
A tour of Yvelines and IDF news
—
“The elected official frequently interferes in the missions of the municipal police, but he only has the possibility of giving the broad outlines of the security policy of the municipality but not the possibility of hindering the missions legally assigned to the municipal police officers” , notes Patrick Leger.
An agent suspended because of a disagreement
On November 9, the town hall finally issued an order suspending the functions of the municipal police officer as a precaution following “serious breaches noted”, in particular “acts of insubordination and disrespect to the regard to his hierarchy ”.
This decision follows in particular the interview of November 6 during which the elected official and the police officer had a disagreement concerning the end of the tour in pairs. “I informed him that in the current context of the Vigipirate plan, the police officers are privileged targets and that it is hardly possible to be separated for the moment,” says the police officer. I come back to the verbalization with discernment prescribed by the Mayor and that the health context does not lend itself to a massive verbalization on a population partly weakened financially due to the crisis and tired of all these restrictive government measures. “
Residents mobilized
Very quickly, the news spread like wildfire in the town. A petition, collecting 166 signatories, is launched by some citizens who consider this decision “unreasonable and unjustified”.
“His great professional conscience, his competence, his interpersonal skills and his dedication in the performance of his duties” have “attracted great sympathy from the population” with regard to the police officer who has been officiating at Mesnil-Saint-Denis for four years. .
“From a professional point of view I have nothing to say, he is someone who has always had a kind word, always attention,” says a trader. I have seen several parades over the years, but he was a very human person. He would often drop by to ask if everything was okay, if we had any particular problems. “Installed for several years, the professional assures to have heard” no one complaining about his professionalism “, only” residents complaining about receiving fines “.
Contacted on this subject, the mayor (LREM) Christophe Buhot indicates that “there is an administrative procedure in progress, we will not make any comments. “
–
