Fighting forest fires, road safety, border control, so many missions that the prefecture, the gendarmerie, the police and the firefighters intend to carry out this summer. And this despite requests for reinforcements at the national level to lend a hand with the Olympic and Paralympic Games. “The question of the security of the Haut-Alpes has not been put aside,” says Maxime Leconte, director of the cabinet of the prefect of Hautes-Alpes.
Measures to ensure workforce retention
To balance with the departure of the 20 to 30 gendarmes, the twenty police officers and 6 firefighters, leave cannot be taken during the critical periods of the Olympic Games, such as the end of July and the beginning of August.
“We will have availability of the department’s police forces between at least 60%, and up to 100% of our total workforce,” says divisional commissioner Jérémie Bosse Platière. And this from June 15 to September 9, since it is also about the Paralympic Games. » For comparison, the head of the department’s national police indicates that the usual rate of personnel available at this time of year fluctuates between 40 and 50%.
“It is especially the specialists who are being drained for the Olympics”
The numbers mobilized for the Games will vary, but a group of at least 20 high-Alpine police officers and 20 gendarmes will be moved in shifts during the most tense periods.
“For our part, it is mainly the specialists, such as for the fight against drones or the search for explosives, who are being drained for these Games,” explains Colonel Jérôme Grange, at the command of the departmental gendarmerie. And almost all of my bikers will be hired at one point or another [en rotations, toujours, NDLR]. »
Finally, as for the firefighters, Colonel Alain Juge, responsible for Hautes-Alpes, focuses on an almost usual summer season. “Summer is a busier season for us, especially with the tourist influx. » Mechanisms already used have been put in place, namely the recruitment of 40 volunteer firefighters recruited as seasonal workers, and 13 other seasonal workers employed to monitor swimming around Serre-Ponçon. Enough to compensate for the six high-Alpine firefighters dispatched to the Nice stadium during the Games.
