Dressed in work uniforms and fluorescent yellow vests, the agents of FRAP patrol the city, equipped with vans and pressure washers. The goal? “To maintain the cleanliness of the streets of Nice,” replies Steeve Saccone, one of the two heads of the Rapid Action Cleanliness Force.
The toll-free number received 200 calls upon opening. It still gets over 150 calls every day for the past week. “That’s a good average,” says Steeve Saccone. “This type of service exists in other cities, we had inquired with them, and so we expected to receive that many calls.” One of the younger FRAP agents points out, however: “we are overwhelmed but, often, people call us for minor, somewhat unnecessary interventions, things they could have easily cleaned up themselves.”
Does a neighbor leave used furniture on the sidewalk? “We note the name, the street. We first call the bulky waste service of the CANCA. If the person had made an appointment with ‘hello bulky waste,’ we call the neighbor to explain it to them, and let the bulky waste team do their job. Otherwise, we alert the Green Brigade of the municipal police to issue a fine.” Has a truck spilled material on the road, or is trash piling up at the corner of a street? “We send a team to the site within two hours to clean everything up.” These are the most common types of operations that FRAP handles. But be careful, it in no way replaces regular garbage collection.
In front of the office, which also serves as a switchboard, on Route de Turin, FRAP parks about ten recent and functional vehicles. For now, the resources provided by the city hall are not impressive, just the minimum to get started properly. Seated between a large map of the city, a stack of “incident reports,” and whiteboards, Steeve Saccone admits: “It’s completely impossible to be reactive within 20 minutes as initially planned. It takes time to mobilize a free team, and to move around the city. Generally, we manage to intervene within 2 hours, but it’s already not easy.”
The workforce should increase quickly if the need arises. For now, FRAP has 19 agents, 3 supervisors, and 2 managers. Who are they? “We needed a young, dynamic team who could adapt to the schedules: working one weekend out of three, and being on call at night (in shifts),” explains Steeve Saccone. “All the FRAP agents are therefore volunteers. And they are all municipal employees of the city of Nice, who were already working in cleaning and maintaining the city’s cleanliness.” Christian Estrosi has given himself 100 days to make Nice an impeccably clean city.
