The urgent context following the July 14th attack led the municipality to commission an audit of security conditions for 113 identified priority buildings: 84 school buildings (municipal public schools), 26 childcare facilities (municipal nurseries), the main town hall, and the Corvésy and Bosio annex town halls.
An international specialized firm was contracted and delivered its report, which highlighted the strengths of the current situation and made numerous recommendations for reaching an optimal level of security.
This involves supplementing certain equipment and implementing behavioral procedures and training. A “security” officer has even been hired to implement, coordinate, and manage this sensitive issue.
Moreover, it is known that for Christian Estrosi, “the first freedom is security” – as he likes to repeat at every opportunity.
Strengthened by this axiom, and the relative agreement of everyone with this principle, he has implemented the largest municipal police force in France and almost total surveillance of the city with nearly 1,500 cameras.
To those who fear that increasing security might limit personal freedom and the right to privacy, he counters that “honest citizens have nothing to fear.” And he shares his usual refrain: “Public security is a sovereign mission, but… etc, etc.”
Here, we are hopeful: just a few more months and then, if all goes well, the tune will change!
Concerning the nurseries, 32 structures have been audited and ranked from level 1 (low security) to level 5 (optimal security).
The recommendations to be implemented for all these facilities have been assessed at €1.3M: €300,000 of work has been carried out since September, and €1M of work will be conducted starting in 2017.
The program plans to equip all sites with one or two alert buttons connected to the CSU, install external cameras on some sites for better visual coverage, and strengthen access controls with videophones where necessary.
In addition to the audit and in line with its recommendations, the Situational Prevention Service of the Municipal Police has visited all the nurseries to establish procedures with the managers and staff in case of serious events.
The 154 schools have also been audited and ranked from level 1 (low security) to level 5 (optimal security), with recommendations implemented for all these facilities assessed at €5.2M for the year 2016.
These include the installation of 234 video surveillance cameras for each school entrance at a total cost of €2,260,000, raising fences and reinforcing access doors for €1,300,000, installing anti-intrusion alarms for €900,000 in 16 schools, and setting up a second supervision room at the CSU dedicated to alarm management, for an amount of €200,000.
An additional 26 cameras will be installed in 2017 for an amount of €190,000.
By the 2017-2018 school year, all public primary and nursery schools will be equipped with anti-intrusion alarm systems.
But it’s not over yet; the reorganization of the Municipal Police and the creation of 130 additional municipal police officer positions for 2017 will allow for the assignment of a permanent officer to each school, replacing the currently present (unarmed) private security officer.
