Lyon. Insecurity and shootings, the police boss responds: “Drug dealers are resisting”

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EXCLUSIVE NEWS LYON. After a busy year 2024 for the Lyon policethe head of the interdepartmental direction of the national police (DIPN) of the Rhône, Nelson Bouard, granted us an interview.

Trafficking, shootings and petty crime, there are many subjects for DIPN 69.

Actu : What are the current priorities of the Lyon police?

Nelson Bouard : The fight against drug trafficking and other forms of trafficking such as cigarettes or the resale of medicines. We are also fighting against violence, particularly that against women, and finally against irregular immigration and especially links with certain forms of delinquency. The spectrum is broad.

You don’t mention petty crime, caravan thefts, tags… What are the police doing to fight against these everyday crimes?

N.S : This is not petty crime, because the person who has his car broken into, the person who is the victim of a pickpocket, never considers that it is a small thing. This is a real concern with delinquency which has fallen sharply in the Lyon metropolitan area, but which will no longer decline in 2024, and which has even increased in certain neighborhoods. A delinquency treated by the search for the flagrante delicto and the investigation, because organizations usually work on these formats. A few days ago, young women from the Balkans were arrested, caught in the act of burglary in Lyon, and who were quickly suspected of having committed other acts. They lived in a hotel outside the town and made the return trip, sometimes several times during the day.

The world of banditry still very present in Lyon

Is there any particular delinquency in Lyon?

N.S : Yes, the persistence of an environment of banditry which continues to carry out armed robberies, in particular of the transport of precious metals or valuables, a form of crime which is becoming increasingly rare on the national territory. Both in the Lyon region, and sometimes on the other side of Lake Geneva, with our Swiss friends. This is the spectrum of action of our division fighting organized and specialized crime. We have already had great success, and there is no team falling through the cracks.

What assessment do you draw from the reform implemented at the start of 2022 and which aimed to increase the number of patrols by at least 25%?

N.S : We have given more strength and consistency to our services. Today, there are 4 territorial divisions, each is headed by a divisional commissioner who has in his hands an intervention service, an investigation service which operates 24 hours a day. Day and night, judicial police officers are available. All this may seem very technocratic, it is precisely the opposite that we did. We have practically reached the balance between daytime and nighttime intervention capacity. With, obviously, moments and time slots of very strong presence, particularly when we are in the afternoon and the first part of the night.

“We are doing a lot to improve nighttime security in Lyon”

Despite this, certain sectors are often in trouble, such as Place des Terreaux which remains a cut-throat.

N.S : We are doing a lot to improve nighttime security in Lyon; Place des Terreaux is one of the priority objectives in this area. We have seen certain neighborhoods in the hypercenter of Lyon affected by phenomena of violence. With a certain number of partners, and in particular private ones, we are working to improve security around nightlife areas, in Confluence, the quays of the Saône or even the Presqu’île… Sectors in which, especially in spring, we We were able to experience an increase in violence which gave rise to special measures, particularly in the second part of the night.

We remember that it was said that certain brigades had had such good results that there were no more places in police custody, was this also the case with the reform?

N.S : Our jails are almost full every day. Our response times have been halved. Our objective was to be a 30 to 40% reduction in delays, that is almost 50% less time between call 17 and intervention. The average delay is now below 9 minutes, we hope to reduce it further. We must regulate between our capacity to act and the number of interventions, between 80,000 and 100,000 each year.

Among the black spots in the city, we find that of the Tonkin district where there have been a series of shootings in recent days. How do you react?

N.S : We have dealers who resist our usual actions. We therefore set up Place Nette operations and worked on in-depth legal investigations which made it possible to put a certain number of traffickers out of harm’s way. But traffic resists, because the number of customers who come to Tonkin to buy is very significant. They are the culprits behind the traffic, and to deal with it, we have put in place considerable reinforcement, including to last the new BST over time.

500 kg of cannabis seized in Meyzieu a few days ago, a ton of ecstasy shortly before… seizures are increasing, but does this have a real impact on traffic in Lyon?

N.S : Anything that is taken out of the hands of traffickers is a good thing. When we withdraw considerable quantities, the economic damage for these networks is significant, it reduces the product arriving on the market in Lyon and it allows us to obtain convictions of those we bring to justice. It also fuels knowledge of trafficking and the work carried out internationally.

“A Mexicanization” of delinquency in Lyon?

We’re not on a ton of seizures, ten more passing?

N.S : It is obvious that even if we take the product, it continues to be sold on the Lyon plate. We are aware that when we make a seizure, it does not dry up traffic for three weeks in the region. One of the challenges is to never fall behind the traffickers who are constantly reorganizing themselves. We will end the year with more than 6 tonnes of cannabis seized, the highest levels in recent years.
Our investigators also work a lot on heritage research. Last year, our services seized the equivalent of a little more than 11 million euros, in cold hard cash, cryptocurrency, cars, jewelry, watches, leather goods, luxury clothing… The thugs do not do not lack imagination and are often very bling-bling. But they also make investments. The objective is very simple: seize all ill-gotten gains.

Like Bruno Retailleau, do you fear a “Mexicanization” of delinquency if nothing is done in Lyon?

N.S : We have unfortunately seen torture and barbaric acts in criminal circles for a long time. I believe that the history of the Lyonnais Gang demonstrated, a number of years ago, the cruelty of certain delinquents. Drug trafficking generates rapid and colossal profits, fierce competition, more and more disinhibition among those who participate in it, and violence which becomes almost limitless between criminal groups. These are things that we also see developing in the Lyon metropolitan area, not to the extent of what we know in Marseille.

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