The Amiens municipal police arm themselves with electric pulse guns during the day. The announcement was made this Monday morning at the Urban Supervision Center by Hubert de Jenlis, mayor of Amiens. Since June 2022, only teams engaged in the evening or at night were equipped, now even patrols undertaken during the day, for example on the Christmas market, are concerned by wearing this Taser brand equipment.
To date, 30 agents have been trained, around fifteen will be trained in the coming months : three days of theory, particularly on the legal aspect, and 18 hours of practical training. Each agent must also have the approval of the Somme Prefecture. 'This is the weapon most suited to municipal police missions.“, estimates Mayor Hubert de Jenlis.
230 cameras in the city by 2026
Since 2022 and the evening implementation, municipal agents have only drawn their weapons once and without shooting, to arrest an armed man following a dispute between neighbors. Equipment requested by Amiens municipal police officers. “This allows you to have a means of defense, to not be in direct contact with an individual who would be threatening“, explains Francis Israel, head of operational division of the municipal police of Amiens. “The electric pulse gun is only used in a strict context of self-defense and in the event of an attack on physical integrity. This makes it possible to keep an individual at a distance of four or five meters. There is an integrated camera, which allows recording in both directions, for the person and for the agent. There is no doubt about it.”
On the sidelines of this trip to the CSU, Hubert de Jenlis confirms the wish to achieve the 230 video protection cameras deployed in the city by 2026, the bar of 200 pieces of equipment being exceeded this year. The filmed images, upon request, can be handed over to the national police, as was the case recently during swastika tags in the city centeror during the attack on Jean-Baptiste Trogneuxgreat-nephew of Brigitte Macron, on the sidelines of the mobilization against pension reform.
