It was a campaign promise during the 2020 municipal elections and this will be one of the new features of the year in Saint-Junien: the town is planning the installation of 20 to 25 video surveillance cameras during the second half of the year. This is not about live monitoring the actions of the inhabitants, but to film in order to be able to entrust the images to the police in the event of a crime.
In the streets of the glove-making city, opinions are generally favorableeven if the mayor says he expects opposition in principle from certain citizens. “I find that very good compared to the trash problems“approves for example Benjamin. Litter is also what Rémi spontaneously points out. Faced with these daily incivilities, Mayor ADS Hervé Beaudet hopes a deterrent effect of cameras, as was the case around the Charmilles gymnasiumwhere a camera has been installed for several years. “We had broken windows, regularly, it was expensive,” says the chosen one, “we put in a little camera and it stopped right away.”
Fabienne Joigneault
The other issue is burglaries carried out by highly organized gangs and who only pass through, thanks to the two-lane road, hence the desire to position most of the cameras at the entrances and exits to the city. “It’s extremely useful, it has helped resolve a lot of situations,” testifies Laurent Darthou, UDI mayor of Malemort, where around twenty cameras are installed to date.
The project is still being finalized, but it is estimated to 200,000 euros, of which 40 to 50% financed by the State. Hervé Beaudet finds it quite natural, because, he says, it is necessary “to compensate for the disappearance of the police station” in 2001. Saint-Junien could then count on 36 police officers to watch over the city.
France
