Le Figaro Bordeaux
“
If you walk ahead, they will overtake you;
if you give your hand, they will give their skin...
” Michel Menu's prayer sits next to his desk.
The first general to command the 1,400 active gendarmes and the 500 reservists of the Gironde Departmental Gendarmerie Group (GDGG), Loïc Baras was appointed by presidential decree on July 29, 2022, just before the fires that ravaged the department.
A "
tragedy
" that did not scare him.
On the contrary.
The officer believes that
"the crisis has been beneficial to the rapid establishment of a bond of trust with local institutional leaders
", such as the prefect, Fabienne Buccio.
Six months later, the one who discovered his vocation as a policeman at the Special Military School (ESM) of Saint-Cyr Coëtquidan directs the group towards prevention.
“
Preventing crimes and misdemeanors rather than repressing them
” is his motto.
From the summer of 2023, two mobile brigades specializing in risk and environmental protection could thus be created.
The project, proposed to the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin as part of the ministerial plan to fight in particular against arsonists, would make it possible to organize patrols in the Landes de Gascogne forest and in the Médoc regional natural park.
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Deeply marked by his years in Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy "
where in a particular context of double insularity, the population was confronted with poverty and high crime
", General Loïc Baras always hopes to warn before acting.
Former first security adviser to the association of mayors of France, the soldier now focuses his prevention policy on cybercrime.
Since the end of November, around forty city councilors have requested the Gironde Gendarmerie for an audit analyzing their digital vulnerability.
Loïc Baras, a general at the service of the youngest
A commitment that this son of pharmacists also pursues with the youngest.
In conjunction with the Academic Director of National Education Services (Dasen), the officer of the national order of merit is working to make an application on cyberbullying available in Gironde.
The tool, developed with the e-Enfance association while he was stationed in Yvelines, serves as a support for supervisors facing middle school students or even CM2 students.
For the first time in the department, a "Defense class" has also been created.
From January 2023, the students of the first STMG of the Max Lander high school in Libourne will thus discover the army corps at the rate of one or two sessions per month.
A project on the initiative of a pupil, which is added to the device of the cadets of the Gendarmerie, intended for the French from 15 to 18 years.
And when he is not contributing to the training of young people in the ranks, General Loïc Baras swaps his kepi for a beret.
In another uniform, this father of three children was thus at the head of the Chambord crisis unit when a violent storm upset the reunion of 30,000 scouts gathered to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their movement last June.
