New Year’s Eve: 95,000 police and gendarmes and 32,000 firefighters mobilized

“This evening of December 31, more than 95,000 police and gendarmes, as well as 32,000 firefighters and civil security actors will be mobilized to ensure the safety of our fellow citizens and bring them assistance. Thank you to them for their daily commitment to the service. the French”, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin tweeted this Friday morning.

The capital alone will concentrate nearly a tenth of the workforce. Thus, nearly 9,000 police and military personnel will be mobilized on the night of December 31, 2021.

For the police, it will above all be a question of ensuring security in the cities but also of ensuring that the measures imposed for this evening are respected.

In order to prevent and intervene on the risks of disturbances to public order that may be observed during the festivities, police and gendarmes will be mobilized with the mission of ensuring vigilance against the terrorist risk and preventing acts of delinquency and to fight against urban violence. They will also control the sale, purchase, transport or use of fireworks formally prohibited for this evening and for several days. Roadside checks to combat alcohol and drug abuse will also be carried out at the end of the day.

In addition to the capital and several towns in Ile-de-France which will be particularly monitored, other prefects have announced a substantial security system, particularly in view of the events that have occurred in recent years. This is particularly the case in Strasbourg where urban violence targeting the police and firefighters is recurrent. Six mobile force units (UFM), i.e. 360 officials, will be mobilized, as well as nearly 400 police officers and a “hundred” dThe soldiers of Operation Sentinel, detailed at the beginning of the week the prefect of Bas-Rhin, Josiane Chevalier. Across the department, 630 firefighters as well as 450 gendarmes will also be on the ground, a total of 1,950 police, firefighters and soldiers, she continued.

“It is a consequent device and adapted to the strategy put in place” after the “attacks” of which the firefighters were victims in particular on the night of December 31, 2019, New Year’s Eve 2020 having been much calmer due to the curfew established for health reasons, explained Josiane Chevalier.

Like last year, but in a stronger way this time, the police and gendarmes will also ensure compliance with the many health measures. In the vast majority of French departments, the prefectures have taken specific decrees imposing in particular: the closure of bars and restaurants between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. depending on the city, the wearing of a compulsory mask outdoors, the prohibition of dancing in establishments open to the public, ban on the sale or consumption of alcohol on public roads …

Anyone who does not comply with these measures may be fined up to 135 euros. The penalties will be more severe in the event of a repeat offense.