The end-of-year celebrations under police surveillance in Marseille and in the Bouches-du-Rhône
It’s the big Christmas shopping rush. This weekend and next week, businesses will break attendance records in town centers and shopping malls. A boon for traders, but also for criminals who take advantage of this busy period to dispose of their small and large theft. “We have the reinforcement of three CRS units, we have signposted these festive places where there are many purchases so that professionals and customers can enjoy these holidays with complete peace of mind”. explains Frédérique Camilleri, police chief of Bouches-du-Rhône.
Nearly 200 CRS as reinforcements
Each day in Marseille, 180 additional CRS are therefore deployed to secure shopping streets and shopping centers. At the Terrasses du Port, these patrols are intended to be dissuasive while this last shopping weekend promises to attract 90,000 people, 260,000 over the coming week according to the management of the Marseille shopping center.
A dissuasive police presence
From November, even before these reinforcements, the police had been redeployed, prioritizing city centers and shopping centers. The figures speak for themselves: the number of armed robberies fell by 15% in the Bouches-du-Rhône, the number of violent robberies fell by 10%. The police presence has also been reinforced, throughout the holiday period, in front of places of worship.