Paris: The creation of a municipal police force voted with the voices of the opposition (Illustration) – G. VARELA / 20 MINUTES
The Parisian municipal police project, promise of the mayor PS Anne Hidalgo in the municipal elections of 2020, was adopted on Wednesday with the voices of the opposition but without those of its environmental and communist allies.
The project defended by his security deputy Nicolas Nordman was adopted in the Council of Paris with 114 votes for and 30 against thanks to those of elected PS, right and center and despite the opposition of other elected left (PCF, EELV, Generations).
A “historic decision” for Hidalgo
Anne Hidalgo, who had rallied to this idea in 2019, a year before being reelected, hailed a “historic decision” while the municipal police is “everywhere else in France a daily evidence”.
In a capital which could not choose its mayor by universal suffrage until 1977, “this decision marks a new step in the evolution of the statute of our city towards the common law of the communes”, underlined Anne Hidalgo, possible presidential candidate in 2022.
The first operational police officers in September
The promulgation at the end of May of the Global Security Law, even partially censored, made it possible to put an end to this historic exception.
The first municipal police officers, equipped with a bulletproof vest, a gas, a baton, handcuffs and a camera but no lethal weapon, will be operational from the start of September, in waves of 200 having completed the training sessions. The objective of the town hall is to increase from 3,300 agents currently active within the Department of Prevention, Security and Protection (DPSP) to 5,000 for the 2024 Olympics.
Spread over 17 arrondissement divisions, the Parisian police will be able to issue illegal deposits, urine effusions, cigarette butt throwing, noise pollution, canine droppings, annoying parking lots or overhangs of terraces.
“A policeman without a weapon is a target”
Right-wing elected officials, who have been calling for this municipal police force “for many years”, voted for the project while highlighting its many flaws. “An unarmed policeman is a target,” said MP Brigitte Kuster (LR). In the absence of “additional prerogatives” compared to the DPSP, it “will have police only in name”, lamented Nicolas Jeanneté (Les Centristes).
For the mayor of the 15th arrondissement Philippe Goujon (LR), this municipal police “will not count 5,000 police officers” as announced “but only 3,400, the balance being made up of mediators and simple surveillance agents”. “All of these 5,000 agents contribute to public tranquility,” replied Nicolas Nordman, interviewed by AFP, citing the example of fights during which mediators intervene upstream.
Fearing a disengagement of the national police, environmentalists and communists voted against. The municipal police “will not respond to public security problems”, said Fatoumata Koné (EELV), who denounces the “transfer of powers from the State to the local authorities” without “the financial means or tax bases”.
“All the Communist mayors” who have set up a municipal police “have confirmed to me that these creations lead to a withdrawal of the State from its security missions”, assured Nicolas Bonnet-Oulaldj (PCF).