For a safe end-of-year celebration, the municipal police are increasing their numbers in the city centre of Nîmes

Pendant les fêtes, une cinquantaine de policiers municipaux viennent renforcer les équipes dans les rues de Nîmes. Midi Libre – E.A.

Around fifty additional police officers will patrol the streets of the Écusson in Nîmes from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m.

“The city centre is the place of choice for local residents and tourists, who come to discover the many shops for their Christmas shopping, but also our heritage and end-of-year events. But the last two weeks of December are also conducive to shoplifting, gang robberies or even armed robberies”, underlines Richard Schieven, elected official for security in the City of Nîmes.

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Faced with this observation, and for several years now, the municipal police has been increasing its workforce. This year, nearly fifty additional police officers are coming to support the municipal police teams. A security operation that the elected official presented this Wednesday, December 11, through a stroll through the streets, accompanied by a police patrol.

About fifty additional police officers

“It's reassuring”, concedes this stand manager at the Christmas market, which is located just in front of the Esplanade. According to him, this presence of the police ensures a certain peace of mind. “The market is rather calm, because it is family-oriented. But on the Esplanade side, it is more hectic. And the presence of the police with their dogs ensures that there are no problems or excesses”, he specifies. On Rue de l’Aspic, Claudia, a shopkeeper, also welcomes this reinforcement. Especially since just a few days ago, she was the victim of a theft in her store. “We have surveillance cameras that deter, but it's true that this Sunday again, young people came into the store behaving suspiciously. So it's very good that there are police officers. And for our customers too. Two years ago, as soon as they left our store, some of our customers had their shopping bags snatched. The fact that there are police officers is still a deterrent to delinquents”, she explains.

As soon as they left our store, some of our customers had their bags snatched shopping

During the entire holiday period, to promote this deterrence, the police are present over a wider time slot, from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. “The idea is for the police to be there when the shopkeepers are closing their stores”, adds Richard Schieven. An action that complements the “anti-hold-up” operation of the national police, also launched for the end of the year, which aims to secure shopping centers.