In Marseille, fighting illegal dumping of waste is like trying to clean up the Mediterranean with a landing net, we say to ourselves that the fight is lost in advance and yet the City of Marseille has made it a priority. Voted in December by the municipal council, the environmental brigade, made up of municipal police officers, has already taken action. 200 interventions, 15 of which were forwarded to the public prosecutor of Marseille for criminal proceedings.
Important ways to pin down professionals
Day and night, 15 men patrol Marseille and six agents decipher the CCTV cameras at the supervision center. The idea is to catch the culprits red-handed. The end of impunity according to Yannick Ohanessian, deputy in charge of public tranquility. “We want to hit hard and fast on the wallet. We target professionals who throw tons of waste by often abusing people in precariousness whom they pay with a few tickets to take the risk of committing these crimes”.
It’s only a beginning
On the surveillance videos, the spectacle is distressing. Trucks empty their skips with bags of cement, rubble, dozens of tires, etc… especially in the vast arrondissements: 14th, 10th with part of the 11th. It’s only a beginning, the City will invest in mobile cameras. Parks and gardens agents and public road surveillance agents will be trained in the environmental code.