Seine-Saint-Denis : in the face of insecurity, an office HLMS assigns the State in justice, Le Figaro

Worried for the safety of its tenants, in particular, confronted with traffics of drugs, the social landlord calls for more police officers in the department.

The State fails its obligations? Certainly, according to the office public Plaine Commune Habitat of Seine-Saint-Denis, which deplores the lack of police officers assigned to the 18,000 homes it manages in seven cities of the department. Noting the rise of insecurity in some districts, the social landlord has decided to assign the State court on November 3 to obtain a strengthening of the mobilization of the security forces in the department. “We are embarking on this procedure because we can not and do not want to give up our tenants and our employees. Like any other citizen, they have the right to peace and security”, explains Stéphane Little, president of Plaine Commune Habitat and assistant to the communist mayor of Saint-Denis.

The office HLM receives from several years of complaints from tenants and witnessing of the facts of insecurity such as physical and verbal assaults, robbery, or threats. Incidents mainly related to drug trafficking. “The daily lives of some inhabitants and custodians of buildings is very complicated, or even impractical,” continues Stéphane Little. Plaine Commune Habitat claims to have alerted repeatedly to the prefect of the Seine-Saint-Denis, asking him to increase the number of police officers in the department. Without response.

After the announcement of the assignment of the State administrative Tribunal, the prefecture finally declared that this procedure is unprecedented “has no legal basis for serious”. Stéphane, Little, him, persists and signs: “This is not the prefecture that does justice. With my lawyer, we affirm that there is a legal basis for serious, but this will be for the judge to decide.”

the question then arises as to the admissibility of this approach. “It would be obvious that this type of action is directly caused by tenants, not by the public office. The offices have the skills to manage and maintain the buildings, and possibly for the guarding but not for public safety,” says the Figaro Me de Baillencourt, of the law firm Granrut.

More than a lack of means, and Plaine Commune Habitat is pointing to a discriminatory treatment. According to its president, “the commune of Saint-Denis has 1 police officer for every 400 residents compared with 1 for 200 at the national level”. He also points out that the number of inhabitants in the department has increased 25% in the last fifteen years, without the actual font does not change on the territory.

In its application, dated November 3 and filed in the administrative Court of Montreuil, the office of public demand to wear at least 500 officers on the staff of the national Police (against 290 today), in the office of the commissioner of Saint-Denis and increase, in the same proportions, the number of staff in other stations located on the territory of Plaine Commune.

In the meantime, 300 new police officers out of school have been advertised in the department by the minister of the Interior, Bernard Cazeneuve, last September. Insufficient to Stéphane Little, who fears a trick: “We can’t have transparency on the numbers of police. These arrivals will compensate for the departure?” he asked.