In three years, the town of Rezé, near Nantes, has seen its number of break-ins fall by more than half. A year later, the city rose to first place in a Figaro ranking of the 444 cities with more than 20,000 inhabitants most targeted by thugs.
“We had a delinquency of burglaries which was essentially generated by individuals living in squats,” says Nicolas Jolibois, the head of the Loire-Atlantique police.