Cases of coronavirus among police and CRS Poitiers! About ten cases in one week at the Poitiers police station, of which half a priori of English variants. The first agent affected was undoubtedly contaminated during an intervention on Tuesday, January 26 in the St Eloi district, then everything accelerated with a dozen cases identified the following Saturday. The Covid-positive officials are on sick leave at home and are being followed by their doctors. Contact cases are in isolation at home for seven days with tests to be redone before their return.
Union demands to test all police officers
The departmental direction of public security follows the health protocol to the letter : Plexiglas partitions between offices, investigators and those in custody, tissue and surgical masks for staff. FFP2 masks in vehicles in case of intervention in contact with possible patients.
But by the very nature of their missions, police officers remain exposed to the risk of contamination. The Alliance union therefore calls for massive tests for the police de Poitiers and Châtellerault so as to put an immediate halt to a possible cluster, as stated by Pascal Ménard, deputy departmental secretary of the Alliance Police Nationale union for Vienna.
“These massive tests aim to reassure the agents, their families but also the population because when we go into intervention we are in contact with people. They must know that their police have minimized the risk of contamination and that they are in security”
The trade unionist specifies all the same that despite the ten positive cases, there is no risk for the continuity of the public service. The police do indeed carry out their missions.
Forty CRS-positive cases 18
Among the CRS, company 18 of Poitiers is also affected with 39 positive cases identified a week and a half ago. The first cases occurred after an intervention on demonstrations in Nantes, undoubtedly in contact with demonstrators. The entire company, which has 135 men and women, was placed in solitary confinement for at least seven days. She was to leave for intervention in Toulouse last Thursday, it was postponed. Missions only resumed this Wednesday with an intervention at Mont de Marsan to cover an official trip. And even if the maximum of precautions are taken to protect the workforce, the CRS Poitiers are not serene in the face of the reality of their profession and the Covid risk.
Risks linked to the very nature of their mission
At the end of the isolation period, the 128 detained officers were tested again. Those who still presented risks stayed at home, the others returned to work. This Wednesday February 3, a column of 70 CRS Poitiers took to the road for a security mission in Mont de Marsan (an official trip scheduled for Thursday). They will then go to Toulouse if necessary. In all cases and despite the anti-covid measures put in place on a daily basis, they expose themselves to risks.
Six CRS per van with dispensation
Just when traveling, for example. Normally, there are six CRS per van. With the Covid risk they are supposed to be four, but given the lack of vehicles in some companies, the central management still authorized exemptions to six people per vehicle. So of course, the agents are equipped with masks, there is hydroalcoholic gel available. For meals, in refectories, it is one CRS per table, with services staggered as much as possible.
Shared sanitary facilities in times of covid
But it is for accommodation that it is more complicated. During their missions, the CRS stay either in approved hotels, but most often they sleep in cantonments, old buildings with, as they requested, single rooms but shared bathrooms. What denounce all the unions questioned. Aurélien Grégory represents the Alliance police union for the Poitiers CRS ….
“Obviously, we find it absurd to have to share the sanitary facilities with three or four colleagues during a pandemic”
Other unions also denounce the lack of cleaning and disinfection of the premises: only one cleaning lady and one visit per day for example for the buildings of Poitiers.
Should internal training be suspended?
And then there is the issue of training which poses a problem. The SGP-Police FO union for the Poitiers CRS, wonders why we maintained that of Béthune at the end of January. “Right after this training, the CRS 15 in Lille recorded twelve positive cases of coronavirus.” However, the Poitevins CRS were registered for this training.
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