The prefecture released the figures on Friday: crime increased slightly in Loiret in 2021 : nearly 29,000 facts have been observed, this is an increase 3% compared to 2020. Except that the 2020 balance sheet had been truncated due to the health crisis and confinement. If we reason over 5 years, crime has decreased by 12% in the Loiret between 2017 and 2021. A drop, therefore, but which hides contrasting developments.
Domestic violence and cybercrime on the rise
The most spectacular decrease concerns property crimes : – 37% since 2017. Caravan thefts, burglaries, vehicle thefts, the prefecture evokes “a historic drop“. Conversely, attacks on people’s physical integrity continue to increase : 7,325 incidents recorded in Loiret last year, up 11% compared to 2020, and even 18% compared to 2017. But this increase is largely due to domestic violence : violence against women, incest, etc. In a context of freedom of speech and better reception of victims, qualify the authorities.
Another significant development, economic and financial scams have increased by 30% in 5 years. Half of the cases now concern internet scams or hacks. This affects companies as well as individuals, especially the elderly: “We deplored 459 victims over the age of 65 for this kind of crime in the gendarmerie zone in Loiret last yearemphasizes the General Christophe Herrmanncommander of the gendarmerie in Centre-Val de Loire, we recorded 2,698 complaints for scams on the net, this is a record.“A worrying record since the rate of elucidation of this type of business is particularly low, around 10%. The Loiret gendarmerie now has 6 investigators specialized in cybercrimeand a specific training plan will be deployed in the coming months in the various brigades of the department.
A thousand fixed fines against drug users
Domestic violence and cyberdelinquency have therefore become over the years the new priorities of the public authorities. Without taking anything away from an older priority, but which remains topical: the fight against drug trafficking. 1.2 tonnes of cannabis and 70 kilos of heroin were seized in 2021 in Loiret, resulting in 150 police custody. With a technique of “harassment of deal points“, describe Thierry Guiguet-Doronthe departmental director of public security: “39 deal points had been identified in the police zone in 2020, there are currently only 20. These are encouraging results, even if we know that certain deal points move and that it is a permanent struggle.“
Police officers and gendarmes now also make extensive use of tort fixed fines – a tool set up in September 2020, which makes it possible to repress on the field the consumer of narcotics, especially cannabis. 1,012 fines of 200 euros were thus drawn up last year in the Loiret. “It’s a useful tool because it allows us to reach a section of the population, small users, who until now had been relatively sparedcomments Thierry Guiguet-Doron. There, the penal response is immediate, since the fine is drawn up in the street, from the portable terminals with which we are equipped.“The recovery rate, however, would not exceed 60%, and the deterrent effect of the measure has still not been demonstrated.