Toulouse: the municipal police strengthen its workforce
The municipal police of Toulouse continues to strengthen its workforce. Forty-nine positions have been opened since last year. With the objective of doubling the patrols, far from the city center.
“The people of Toulouse criticize us for not seeing the municipal police outside the city center. At least not enough, concedes the mayor Jean-Luc Moudenc. Of course the city center concentrates the most people, therefore incidents or “The incivilities but these reinforcements will allow us, and this is one of the objectives set for the management of the municipal police, to increase our presence in the most outlying districts of Toulouse.”
With a municipality “larger than Paris”, not easy. But the objective of “bringing Toulouse residents more security” remains a priority. Both on the side of the municipality and the state. “It’s a collective effort”, recalls the regional prefect Etienne Guyot, “delighted” with the perfect collaboration between the police, national and municipal. “Each in your functions, you are the same chain and you can count on the support of the prosecution when, in the exercise of your missions, you suffer violence or outrages”, indicates also the prosecutor Samuel Vuelta-Simon, come to take part in this “installation” ceremony in the heart of the Capitol.
Up to 20 patrols between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m.
Between 2021 and 2022, forty-nine new positions were opened in the Toulouse municipal police. “At the end of the year, we will be 384”, loose the boss of the service. On the national police side, of the 111 reinforcements announced in October 2020 during the signing, 88 have already arrived. And new ones are expected this week. By the end of the year, the fall 2020 ambition announced by the Prime Minister should therefore be achieved. “We will then meet and we will see if that is enough or if new efforts are necessary”, warns the prefect.
If the delinquency of appropriation, in particular burglaries, appears in a downward trend, violence remains worrying in Toulouse as in many large cities. Violence that affects the family unit but not only. And despite the development of patrols, up to 20 municipal crews between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., some Toulouse nights remain restless.
“It’s a daily fight on which he never gives up”, underline mayor and prefect. New municipal recruits, women and men, “we have no difficulty recruiting them unlike some cities”, appreciates Emilion Esnault. The deputy in charge of the municipal police sees in it “the proof of the dynamism of a service that makes you want” and which can rely “on a broad know-how”. Patrols by car, motorcycle, bicycle, even on horseback. Not to mention the dog handlers. We could add CCTV cameras. Jean-Luc Moudenc recalls in passing: “In consultation with the State, new locations are being studied”.