"Locating, dealing with and sanctioning phenomena that pollute everyday life": this is how Arnaud Simion, deputy mayor of Colomiers (Haute-Garonne), describes the mission of the new urban environment brigade set up in July in this city of 40,000 inhabitants of the Toulouse conurbation.
In concrete terms, 14 public road surveillance officers take turns to patrol the more than 2000 ha of the municipality.
Equipped with electric bikes, they are thus "closer to the citizens", according to Ghislaine, one of them.
“We can more easily stop to discuss, there are more physical exchanges.
Less than a month after the creation of the brigade, she observes a good return to the population.
“There is real added value, because responsiveness is greater.
This reinforces the credibility of the agents, ”says Ghislaine.
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In practice, these agents thus contribute to combating incivility, to respecting the living environment and the environment.
“The brigade has an educational, prevention and proximity dimension.
It is so easy to throw waste on the public road or to leave garbage cans next to the semi-buried containers of the city, ”underlines the elected official.
Unauthorized depots are indeed one of the main targets of this new brigade.
They have indeed gone from 433 in 2019 to 731 in 2020, according to figures from the municipal police.
In permanent contact with the Urban Surveillance Center (CSU) and the 120 cameras available to the municipality of Colomiers, the agents can intervene to control an observation or report a case to the CSU.
In order to involve all the teams as well as possible, the latter take turns behind the screens and on the bikes, in contact with the citizens.
An electric car is due to complete the system next October.