The announcement of the addition of 60 national police officers in Nice, likely totaling over 80 by the end of the year, is good news. However, ultimately, these are not additional staff, but simply a return to (almost) the situation before 2007.
Before the staff reductions initiated by Nicolas Sarkozy (over 10,000 nationwide, with the closure of many police academies). At the time, we never heard Minister Christian Estrosi object in the slightest. More than 10 years later, the situation in Nice has significantly deteriorated. Les Liserons, St Charles, and Les Moulins are making national headlines.
Despite having the largest municipal police force in France and an astounding number of surveillance cameras: 3,300 as of July 16, 2020 (that’s a 1400% increase since 2007), the consistent situation in Nice is one of failure. It is the failure of a logic that prioritized numerical statistics over community presence, the failure of a logic that led people to believe that costly surveillance cameras would replace human presence.
The result is a dramatic situation in many neighborhoods, with 10 years lost, 10 years to realize it. Despite the bravado and martial declarations, the track record of Christian Estrosi, like his mentor Nicolas Sarkozy, is a significant flop in terms of security.
Robert Injey, PCF 06
