News item, or a sign of rising tensions to be taken into account?
In the wake of the violent aggression of Bernard and Dominique Tapie, on the night of March 3 to 4, many French people expressed their solidarity with the family of the businessman.
And for some, thought about the best way to protect themselves against "
home-jacking
", a term which the French equivalent lacks, and which designates burglaries in the presence of the inhabitants of the home.
Read also: Aggression of Bernard and Dominique Tapie at their home: the Paris prosecutor's office takes up the case
700 to 800 annual home-jackings in Île-de-France
What exactly does this term cover, for which several criminal qualifications exist (extortion at home, violent thefts at home, hostage taking to steal from home, etc.)?
Simple kidnappings at home
are excluded from the field of "
home-jacking
", with the Paris police headquarters emphasizing that the latter "
fall mostly within the family field
".
Thefts by trickery, abuse of weakness, as well as home scams are also ruled out.
What primarily defines this specific type of burglary is a violent modus operandi.
One of its variants, sausage, involves tying up and immobilizing the assaulted, to paralyze or "
exploit
" the victims by extorting information from them under threat.
The perpetrators are often young, in good physical condition, and sometimes drugged to disinhibit themselves.
What primarily defines this specific type of burglary is a violent modus operandi
And there are, first of all, areas that are particularly at risk in this area.
According to elements transmitted to
Figaro
, there are around 700 to 800 facts of this type each year in the departments of Paris and the inner suburbs (Seine-Saint-Denis, Val-de-Marne and Hauts-de-Seine).
Over the whole of France, recent figures are not known but in 2015, nearly 1,000 home-jackings had taken place.
Outside Île-de-France, the Bouches-du-Rhône department was particularly affected in 2016 (64 incidents), as well as Guyana, Guadeloupe and the Alpes-Maritimes.
That year, home jacking was also the serious offense that had experienced the strongest growth, with 40% more incidents.
Still according to the authorities for Île-de-France, the health crisis "
had a slight impact on this type of offense
", with a drop of 8% in 2020 (730 incidents recorded), after an increase of 2% observed in 2019 (795 incidents).
"
The downward trend seems to continue in the first quarter of 2021
", and the number of people questioned by the police for these offenses increased by 13% in 2020 (316 individuals), continues the Ile-de-France police.
Paris and Seine-Saint-Denis were the departments most affected in 2020 with respectively 33% and 37% of the acts committed, against 16% in Hauts-de-Seine and 14% in Val-de-Marne.
2.3 million customers equipped with remote monitoring
One of the reasons for the increase in home-jacking is the better security of private homes, with the development of armored doors, glass bars, or alarms, almost systematic in certain high-risk neighborhoods.
In an interview with
Figaro
in 2016, the professor of criminology Alain Bauer underlined:
“
Home-jacking
like“
car-jacking ”
is a response to the passive security of housing and vehicles.
[...] The thugs have bypassed the technology by violence.
"
To read also: Extortion and torture of the heiress of La Redoute: 18 years of imprisonment required
While technology itself improves, it cannot completely deter burglars;
the Tapie couple were also equipped with a remote monitoring system.
Contacted by
Le Figaro
, the company Verisure, which supplied the system, does not give details on the case but stresses that the surveillance made it possible to alert the police more effectively, Dominique Tapie having had an exchange with a control center that responded in three seconds.
The authorities were immediately notified.
Olivier Allender, CEO of Verisure France, evokes "
12,000 alerts transferred to the
police
each year, and several dozen flagrant offenses per month
" thanks to the solutions proposed.
In France, 2.3 million customers (80% of individuals) would use a solution of this type, and the market has experienced an annual increase of 6 to 7% for a decade.
Concretely, companies in the sector offer surveillance cameras connected to control centers, motion detectors or intercom alarms, to get in touch quickly with assistance.
If one cannot answer, a “
silent listening
” is engaged, so that the operator judges the situation.
The products increase in complexity at the same rate as the professionalism of the attackers: such as the installation of boxes communicating through a special network, in the event of jamming of residents' phones during home-jacking.
For businesses, “
push-buttons
” are also sold, allowing employees to report a serious incident and again initiate remote monitoring.
Good practices
In the absence of these solutions, some good practices are regularly repeated by various security actors.
The prefecture of police thus recommends to always lock the openings of housing: garage, outbuilding but also the main door, and even to "
keep the shutters closed on the ground floor
".
The only way to protect valuables is to "
distribute them in several secure places to limit losses
."
Read also: A breeder jailed for shooting a thief: is society falling into private violence?
On the insurer side, we add that the burglars who launch themselves in the presence of the occupants of the house often aim to steal a vehicle: the keys usually found in the entrance of homes must therefore be stored elsewhere.
Home jackings are rarely practiced spontaneously, the homes being presumed to be rich in valuables.
They are more often the result of an "
investigation
" of the aggressors, using various information.
It is therefore sometimes recommended to discourage them by stripping your home.
The engraving or tattooing of precious goods in the house is recommended, also indicated for simple burglaries, because resale is then complicated.
For small valuables that are rarely used, you can also open a safe, not at home but in a bank.
Home jackings are rarely practiced spontaneously, and are often the result of an "investigation" of the aggressors, by various information.
In the event of forcible confinement, both authorities and insurers recommend to comply, and not to try to fight against the aggressors, thus increasing the immediate physical danger for the victim and his family.
A speech that is sometimes poorly received, which revives the debate on French justice and the notion of “
legitimate defense
”, considered very restrictive in France.
"
On the other hand, you can try to observe the burglars well, and describe their voice, their appearance, in order to help the
police
in their subsequent research
", add certain prefectural services.
It is then a question of protecting traces and clues, by not touching any object, door or switches, and by not allowing anyone to enter.