These are cities that don’t have much in common. From October 19, Rennes, Marseille, Lille, Reims, Créteil and Foix will share a collective experiment on which the government is counting a lot to reduce drug trafficking at the foot of the towers. Announced in May by the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, the system of verbalization of lookouts and other squatters of building halls will come into force in these six cities from October 19. Behind its title “unlawful occupation of a common part of a collective building”, this new fixed fine will allow police and gendarmes to verbalize offenders. The amount will be identical to that of the flat-rate fines in force for cannabis smokers: a flat-rate of 200 euros, reduced to 150 euros in the event of rapid payment but which can be increased to 450 euros. It is accompanied by an entry in the criminal record.
The announcement was made on Wednesday by the Rennes public prosecutor in an interview given to Telegram. Contacted by 20 minutes, Philippe Astruc specified that another fixed fine would come into force on the same date for “illegal installation on the land of others”. A way to fight against all forms of intrusion on private property, from travelers to rave party organizers. The amount of the flat-rate fine amounts to 500 euros, reduced to 400 euros and increased to 1,000 euros.
“An additional stone in the traffickers’ garden”
France has so far had four fixed-rate offenses for lack of insurance, driving without a license, driving with an inappropriate license and use of narcotics (adopted in June 2020). In 2020, Rennes, Créteil and Reims had already been selected to test the flat-rate fine supposed to fight against cannabis consumption. Since the generalization a year ago to the day, 95,900 verbalizations have been drawn up and processed at the national fine processing center located in Rennes.
🇫🇷 📹 ⏺ Drug trafficking: “It’s posting…” Why it will be difficult to verbalize lookoutshttps://t.co/U0iBdIUOOF#video surveillance #20 minutes
– dataz (@datazFr) May 25, 2021
Announced in May by the Minister of the Interior, the fine against building squatters should make it possible to free the halls of buildings, sometimes requisitioned by traffickers. “It is an additional stone in the garden of traffickers”, had justified Gérald Darmanin. “It’s posting,” then criticized some observers. Especially since the measure will not apply to minors. However, many of them work as “chouffeurs” at the bottom of the towers. These two fixed fines could be generalized at the end of this experiment.