Toulouse: Metro police facing the little “queens” of pickpocketing
A special police unit is responsible for securing the Tisséo network. She has to deal with delinquency which is becoming international, in particular with young pickpocket girls from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Fred is a little behind. His men from the SDSTC (departmental public transport security service) carry out identity checks in the metro trains in downtown Toulouse. The lynx gaze of the major is fixed on a group of girls, shod in Nike, in flashy outfits. With a wave of his hand, he signals his teammates to the controllers. One of them speaks a little French. The kid is not at all impressed by the situation and hands the police her cell phone. His mother is in video, she expresses herself a little better in the language of Molière. She explains that she and her small family are originally from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The identity documents are checked, the girls represent free.
Nevertheless, the middle finger has taken the time to remember their faces. It has been a few years since groups of supposedly minors from Eastern European countries took over lines A and B of the Toulouse metro. The major begins to have a fairly encyclopedic knowledge of these queens of pick-pocketing who play on their declared age to pass between the caudine forks of French justice.
Cruises in Barcelona
“Once, when I was traveling in Spain, I came across some in the metro in Barcelona. They recognized me and said hello to me, ”says the officer.
With the management of Tisséo, he set up a new way of working to deal with this new type of crime. Everything goes through video surveillance and the exchange of instantaneous information with Tisséo employees who view live footage from the cameras. “With experience, some of their agents have become experts in spotting thefts directly. They decipher the attitudes, the placement of pickpockets just before they take action. Thanks to them, we can act in flagrante delicto and gain in efficiency”, assures Fred.
Example on February 10, the viewing agents spotted four young women, experts in pickpocketing, in full action.
The camera as an antidote
Their target: a single lady dragging behind her a wheeled suitcase on which she has placed her handbag. Beforehand, the quartet of pickpockets tailed her and managed to recover her card number. These supposedly underage thieves from Bosnia and Herzegovina surround their prey. Two stick to her to slow her down and distract her as she enters the train. A third keeps watch. The fourth, behind the victim, pretends to look for something in a small black leather bag. The bottom is perforated, blinking, she slips her hand into her target’s bag and pulls out the wallet. Fred’s men are immediately notified, the hunt is fast. After a few minutes, they challenge the thieves in front of a ticket machine on Place de Belfort. The guardian angels of the metro also face much more dangerous individuals. Fred sketches it: “For five or six years, we have been landing undocumented migrants from Mostagadem, a port city in northwestern Algeria. They are often in a very precarious situation and bite in stations and on trains. As they have nothing to lose, they can go far in violence. »
In all, they are 29 to be part of the major’s unit. Soon 30 since an officer will come to swell the troops. In recent years, with the work to extend the metropolitan network to Labège, it is likely that the workforce will be further increased.