2023-11-24 18:48:22
This is one of the beautiful districts of Namur: La Plante, close to the city center. A pleasant suburb, ideally located at the foot of the Citadel and on the banks of the Meuse, which has however lost a little of its quality of life in recent years. In question ? Small incivilities and crime which have increased there, according to a group of six residents determined not to sit idly by.
“This is an observation that we make at La Plante but also almost everywhere in Europe” affirms Jean Lafontaine who speaks on behalf of the group, “Stolen cars, burglaries… These are things that come up often and we try to create a structure to counter that.“.
This is how together they have just founded the Conciergerie Plantoise with the ambition of fighting against the phenomenon. Very concretely, they plan to do rounds, in teams of two, 24 hours a day in the streets of the neighborhood. If they were to witness any suspicious behavior during their tour, they would immediately notify the police.
“The police already do their job very well, we have no intention of replacing them” he assures, “Everyone must stay in their place, but we think that as citizens we can also have a role to play. We would see ourselves a bit as an information relay, we see it as an act of kindness in the service of all.”
Although they claim to be at the service of the community, the six concierges nonetheless leave a certain number of neighborhood residents doubtful who fear, neither more nor less, that a private militia will lay down the law in the streets. . “That’s why we started ringing doorbells, to reassure people, to show them that we shouldn’t mix things up and that we’re not a militia. We ask them to give us their opinion, positive or negative, because for us it must be a participatory project.”
Legal, provided you do not intervene
For its part, the Namur-Capital police zone does not necessarily take a dim view of this voluntary commitment, provided that they do not encroach on the prerogatives of its agents. It is therefore forbidden to intervene, enter private property or do anything other than simply call the competent authorities.
Although, in principle, this citizen concierge service does not seem a priori to contravene the law, it nevertheless arouses a feeling of perplexity among Sylvie Smoos, legal advisor to the Union of Cities and Municipalities of Wallonia (UVCW): “A citizen cannot decide, just like that, to monitor public space” she explains, “There is legislation on police services, but also on security, in stores for example, all these people are subject to very specific legislation. We will have to check in what framework they will find themselves, they must padlock their missions so as not to fall into these legislations. So yes, I’m quite perplexed.”
For now, the group says it is considering the future legal structure of its project. A local prevention partnership with the police (PLP), forming a non-profit organization or even creating a company similar to the security sector? A legal fog that must be quickly cleared, especially as the Conciergerie Plantoise plans to solicit financial donations from residents in order to support its activities.
As for whether insecurity has actually increased, it all depends on which statistics you want to take into account. In its 2022 activity report, the police indicate that all criminal acts (thefts, assaults, etc.) have increased compared to the previous year in the area. At the time we contacted them, the Namur police were not able to communicate specifically for the La Plante district, they simply indicated that “this is not where the majority of interventions are concentrated” .
The Plant concierges themselves readily recognize this: La Plante remains, despite everything, a neighborhood where life is still good in Namur.
1700877473
#Namur #faced #insecurity #citizens #act #neighborhood #concierges