Le Figaro Nantes
La Baule announced it last year. Less than a year later, the seaside resort of Pornichet took the same path. On Wednesday, during a municipal council meeting, the mayor of the town of 12,000 inhabitants announced the arming of his municipal police officers. Initially, however, Jean-Claude Pelleteur was not in favor of it, fearing that this equipment could be used to commit suicide, as is sometimes mentioned in news reports. But after obtaining security guarantees, he responded to the request of his agents. Among the tokens of confidence, two thirds of them have already worn them as former gendarmes or national police officers. By 2025, after 45 hours of training and two sessions per year, the municipality hopes that the majority of the team will benefit from a weapon classified in category B.
“We were seeing more and more different and complicated interventions
,” recalls Gildas Robin, responsible for the nine municipal agents (+ a public highway surveillance agent), contacted by telephone. Particularly in the summer period, when night patrols increase and the population climbs to 100,000 people.
“On certain interventions, they had the feeling of not being able to protect themselves, neither themselves nor the Pornichetins
,” he relates, illustrating a particular example. One night, they checked a vehicle full of weapons. Not having been able to obtain reinforcements from the national police at that moment, they let the car leave by reporting it. She was finally arrested in Saint-Nazaire by other law enforcement officers, who discovered that she had been stolen.
“State disengagement”
Providing the police with a defense weapon also goes hand in hand with the
“disengagement of the State”
, mentioned on Wednesday by Frédéric Morvan, deputy in charge of security.
“Our municipal police replace the
national police missions,
”
he recalled, being well aware that
“they themselves regularly deal with people who are armed during checks on our municipality
. ”
“We see the disengagement. We went from a workforce of four to nine in ten years
,” recalls to Le
Figaro
the mayor of Pornichet, Jean-Claude Pelleteur (right-wing), elected in 2014. Likewise, the video surveillance cameras were multiplied by ten. However, those who are committed to protecting officers affirm that the deployment of these tools does not mean that delinquency is increasing.
“We do indeed have festive neighborhoods that must be preserved and monitored. A form of delinquency could take place. This is not the case today. It's necessary to be vigilant."
All in all, protect, prevent and deter.
Equipment, selection criterion before being hired
Michael Nicosia, elected from the minority, did not fail to react on Wednesday to the decision taken by the mayor, who holds the power to arm his police officers without putting it to a vote. Donning the costume of a trade unionist, he regretted an
“alignment of missions”
with those of the national police, without
“alignment of salaries”
.
“If we all recognize that their missions have evolved and become dangerous, then we must make a big effort on their salaries
. ”
The mayor responded with humor based on this testimony:
“Yesterday, I welcomed a municipal police officer who told me: “you know, in all the departmental training that we receive, the objective is to come to Pornichet. We know that the squad is doing well, that the atmosphere is good.” For the moment, they are not talking to me about salary!”
.
The head of the municipal police Gildas Robin does not currently observe recruitment problems, unlike in Nantes. Céline Peremarty, Force Ouvrière delegate of the Nantes municipal police, talks about three determining criteria for an employee before responding to an offer:
“attractive remuneration,
equipment
commensurate with the problems encountered in the city and an interesting schedule”
. In seaside towns, summer planning can sometimes be a drag with little or no vacation during the summer season.
In Pornichet, they have
“15 days”
and with the arrival of the Olympic Games, a particular effort was required of them:
“There were no difficulties with the agents
,” says Gildas Robin. However, this does not reassure the mayor of Pornichet: this summer, the CRS usually expected to stem the flow of vacationers, will not be there, to his great dismay. Paris is holding her back for the Olympic Games.
“There will be more of us and we won’t have any CRS. The thugs will understand it
,” worries the man who shares between 70 and 80 national police officers with La Baule and Le Pouliguen.