From this Wednesday, in Pas-de-Calais, the driving of six radar cars has been entrusted
to private companies. A sort of public service delegation set up by the government to use the police for other tasks.
Radar cars are unmarked vehicles carrying undetectable equipment capable of sanctioning speeding without even the offender realizing it. Since their appearance, these cars have been driven by members of the security forces, police or gendarmes. Except that the Home Office has decided that its agents could be more useful elsewhere. “Free up time for the police to devote it to more qualified tasks such as roadside interception,” explained Place Beauvau at the time.
“These vehicles can circulate 7 days a week and 24 hours a day”
Several territories have already started, but this transfer of tasks does not begin until Wednesday in the Pas-de-Calais. “Six externally driven radar cars are deployed […] from today ”, declared the prefecture of the department in a press release. State services specify that “these vehicles can circulate 7 days a week and 24 hours a day”. Of course, the prefecture does not reveal the precise sectors where there is a risk of crossing the road of one of them. The routes they will follow have been determined by “taking into account only the criteria of local accident”, it is simply mentioned.
In the department, these six radar cars are the only ones in circulation, at least for the moment. The contract was won by the Sécuritas company, which will therefore be responsible for running the vehicles where the authorities tell it to do so. No need to cry scandal by imagining that the service provider will seek to make money to maximize profitability. The Interior Ministry had clearly stipulated that private companies “are not paid for the number of offenses detected”.