It is an instruction note, dated August 18, which annoys some of the police in the Paris region. It deals with a subject that has become a priority for the government and the Ministry of the Interior after several news items this summer: the fight against urban rodeos. On August 8, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, announced an intensification of controls against people carrying out urban rodeos after two children were seriously injured in Pontoise (Val-d’Oise), hit by a motocross.
From the first paragraph of this note that franceinfo was able to consult, the management of the prefecture demands “reinforced controls in places known to be rodeo venues to contribute to the objectives set by government authorities”. The prefecture even gives quantified objectives to its troops, each Ile-de-France department having to carry out a minimum number of checks each day: 32 in Paris, 8 in Hauts-de-Seine or 14 in Seine-Saint-Denis. The note is followed by a list of known locations for urban rodeos.
But it is especially in the “missions” section that the note irritates. It is requested to multiply the checks, lasting one hour, “highly visible”for “deter” and report all violations “without distinction”. An unproductive method, according to a police officer mobilized on these controls and specialized in traffic offenses. “The problem is that by doing these checks, we are quickly spotted and reported by the authors of rodeos. So very quickly, we have nothing left. It’s completely stupid”, explains this agent to franceinfo. The checks would thus become, according to him, banal road checks, where registration cards, insurance, driving licenses are checked…
Another reason for dissatisfaction: the police must make reports at each control and immediately send them to their hierarchy. A method contrary to custom, the police traditionally only making their reports at the end of their service. “We feel that it’s hyper political. It’s decided overnight, to show results”continues this policeman.
These time-consuming operations, which require a lot of manpower, are also surprising on the side of the unions. “Throughout the year, the administration asks us not to chase rodeos. Now it’s an operation every 20 minutes”slips a union source. “We fine everyone and anyone if the motorcycle is in neighborhoods known to be places of rodeos”, continues this union policeman. Is it a desire to “inflate the numbers”, as he fears? Asked, the prefecture did not answer our questions.