Crime rate in the Alpes-Maritimes is down by 6%

With 2016’s very particular state of emergency, which led to stricter border control and unprecedented threats, crimes and law violations are down by 6%.  Physical attacks are stable. “We are continuing our determined struggle”.

The year 2016 has been particularly and extraordinarily challenging. 2016 was a year in a state of emergency. Restoring border control. A year in which the threat at the national level has never been so high. And, of course, the attack in Nice which has imprinted this threat among the Azuréens. With all that, and without “triumphalism”, security forces are pleased to have succeeded in bringing down crime in the Alpes-Maritimes, which fell by 6%.

“We work together”

“All security services, military police, municipal police, intelligence services, PJ, PAF, military sentinel operations, etc. have done an extraordinary job in the proper sense of the term. Because, despite this context, the results are very positive,” said sub-prefect, François-Xavier Lauch.

“After the attack, after only a few days of confusion, the police force went back to work in a remarkable way,” said Marcel Authier, Alpes-Maritimes departmental police director (DDSP). “The rise of migratory phenomena, the phenomena of radicalization within the territory, the new fields to be mastered, such as cybersecurity, have made this year an extremely complex year,” said Lieutenant Colonel Grégory Vinot, commander of the Alpes-Maritimes gendarmerie group. And the two men praise police-gendarmerie collaboration.

Burglaries: major efforts in 2016 have allowed their significant decline

“We got our structures closer together, worked together. Not for us, but in the interest of our fellow citizens,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Vinot. A close and balanced partnership, which is still being strengthened, has led to significant reductions in various types of delinquency in the Alpes-Maritimes.

Decline in armed attacks

Property damage, for example, was down 8.1%. 46,000 acts committed compared to 50,000 last year. However, the rate remains higher than the national average of 33.25 per 1,000 inhabitants per year. It is 42 per 1,000 in the Alpes-Maritimes.

“But the effort continues over the years to reduce this type of delinquency.”

Vehicle theft is down 11.4%. As are thefts inside vehicles, without violence, which have declined by 17.3%. Violent robberies declined by 16.2%. As for armed robbery, there has been an increase from 146 in 2015 to 125 last year. And, almost every time, the details of the incidents have been brought to light.

Physical violence has also decreased: -16.3%. 400 fewer incidents in 2016 than in 2015.

Stable crime-resolution rate

The rate of crime resolution, on the other hand, remained fairly stable. Except for burglaries. It increased to a resolution rate of 13%. Better than the national average which is close to 10%.

By 2017, the Colonel intends to continue the Central Police Department’s “all-out efforts”.

“When faced with us, delinquents become better-behaved. Whenever we harden and show imagination, we see the positive repercussions,” notes Colonel Vinot. That is their challenge. And their goal is to match, if not improve upon “the good results” of 2016.