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Municipal in Paris: can we entrust the security of sensitive sites to the private sector?

2020-02-24T11:51:23.062Z


Rachida Dati, who makes security in Paris one of the pillars of her campaign, proposes to free the police from daily surveillance tasks


Every day, as part of the municipal elections, Le Parisien scrutinizes a declaration or a candidate's proposal.

In order to better distribute the police forces in Paris, to guarantee the security of Parisians, the central axis of his program with cleanliness, Rachida Dati wants "to call on private security which will allow surveillance of public buildings or sensitive buildings".

What does Rachida Dati want?

The candidate LR believes that with this measure, the national police, which is not under the tutelage of the town hall of Paris, could refocus on its missions of "arrests, investigation", and the municipal police, that the former Keeper of the Seals wants to arm, to devote himself to the fight against everyday incivility.

This idea that the state and communities are no longer the only ones to guarantee public security has a name, the "security continuum".

There is no strict definition of what a “sensitive site” is, because the very concept of sensitivity is relative. To the evidence - the Elysée, Matignon, stations, embassies, courts, places of worship, schools - we can add "an operator of vital importance, a company that operates drinking water or the control center tram, ”explains Guillaume Farde, lecturer at Sciences-po Paris.

The Police Prefecture determines the sensitive sites

In France, the private sector has long been involved in police tasks and has the right to carry arms for this. Since the 1970s when the French government had released police and gendarmes from the mission of transporting funds, jewelry and precious metals. He had established a distinction for private companies that launched: for cargoes of more than 200,000 francs, the conveyors had to be trained, and equipped with bullet-proof vests and Category B or C weapons.

Nuclear power plants, ultra-sensitive sites, are also under private surveillance.

However, in January 2015, after the Charlie Hebdo, Montrouge and Hyper Cacher attacks, the government did not call on the private sector, but on the army. Operation Sentinel was tasked with counter-terrorism vigilance. 6,500 soldiers were deployed in Ile-de-France after the new attacks in Paris and Saint-Denis. In February 2017, 7,000 men remained mobilized in France. For three years, no more figures have been communicated. "Our workforce is constantly evolving to adapt to needs," says one of the Sentinelle communications department.

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It is the Paris police headquarters which determines the sites on which to focus its attention, and it refuses to communicate on this point. “The role of the army is not to defend a place or a strategic installation; we support internal security forces to protect the population. In airports, for example, we do not put ourselves in combat order to protect planes or communication infrastructure but we take care of the safety of travelers and people who work on site, ”continues Sentinelle.

“Before 2015, we hadn't really asked ourselves the question, but since then, we can see that everything based on public security will not be enough. With the approach of the Olympic Games, a whole definition is being redrawn, ”said Sarah Pineau, secretary general of the National Union of Reserve Officers.

160 municipal sites guarded by private security guards

In Paris, Rachida Dati does not propose to set a precedent since the city already calls on many private companies, for an annual budget of 13 M €. "Given the tension on the police, gendarmerie and even municipal police, you could no longer organize events in Paris," says Guillaume Farde.

No member of the police prefecture is used to regularly protect municipal buildings, according to Anne Hidalgo's services. If the borough town halls are monitored by city officials, "160 municipal sites (libraries, grounds, gardens) are guarded by private security officers," says one at City Hall. Each Sunday, the perimeters closed to the circulation of the Paris Breathing operation are also entrusted to them. "This makes it possible to better concentrate the staff of the municipal police on qualitative missions of presence on the public highway", we justify to the town hall of Paris.

During the last Nuit Blanche, the order service for 1,000 people was made up of two thirds of security agents from the private sector and one third of municipal agents. "They worked in perfect coordination with the national police, and with total operational success," concludes rue Lobau.

In summary

Rachida Dati offers an already applied deployment, which is not disputed in spirit and which already has a legal basis, reinforced in the law of February 28, 2017 on public security. It remains to be seen how much the candidate LR wants to give to this orchestration of the national, municipal and private forces. And what strict framework will be given to private companies, which have not all completed their moralization process.

Source: leparis

All news articles on 2020-02-24

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