“The field is not abandoned”: in Sète, the prefect of Hérault unveils the summer system for protecting the population

François-Xavier Lauch, le préfet de l’Hérault avec le maire de Sète François Commeinhes. Midi Libre – Thomas Ancona-Léger

De passage à Sète, le préfet de l’Hérault François-Xavier Lauch a réaffirmé la mobilisation des forces de l’ordre dans le département durant toute la saison estivale.

It was in Sète that the prefect of Hérault, François-Xavier Lauch, wanted to unveil the summer protection system for the population in the department. While passing through the singular island, he also took the opportunity to visit the city's police station for the first time and review its staff. “We are on deck and we are not taking any vacations”, hammered home the prefect who wanted to “thank from the bottom of his heart all the officers who have crossed out their vacations” to compensate for the police officers sent as reinforcements to Paris for the Olympic Games.

91 additional police officers in Hérault

This is a situation of "overcompensation" that the police officers in the department are currently experiencing with, for the summer period, 91 reinforcements in Hérault. "We currently have a total of 650 agents mobilized per day in the territory. The land is not abandoned, quite the contrary", recalled François-Xavier Lauch who also underlined the challenge represented by the massive arrival of tourists . A challenge also met thanks to the strong mobilization of reservist citizens of the national police who complete the workforce.

Pressure of delinquency

"We welcome more than a million visitors every day to our beaches, our rivers and our cultural places, this mathematically creates a pressure of delinquency ." A pressure accentuated by the "festive character" of the territory and the season, which gives rise in particular to an increase in public order disturbances linked to excessive alcohol consumption. Forest fires were also mentioned and the prefect paid tribute to the role of the firefighters, all of whose personnel are currently mobilized in the areas concerned. "The terrorist risk, as well as that linked to sabotage, as we have seen recently is still present. I would like to tell the population that there are many of us on the ground and that we are mobilized on all fronts."