{"id":303124,"date":"2025-07-30T05:40:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T05:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/303124\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T05:40:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T05:40:12","slug":"new-fines-for-graffiti-and-unlicensed-driving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/303124\/","title":{"rendered":"New Fines for Graffiti and Unlicensed Driving"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>    Agents may soon issue fines for graffiti, driving without a licence, and taking alcohol into sports stadiums<\/p>\n<p>\n        Police officers will check on your home daily, to spot signs of trouble<br \/>\n        gabriel12 \/ Shutterstock\n    <\/p>\n<p>Municipal police officers might soon be able to issue fines<br \/>\nfor graffiti, driving without a licence, and taking alcohol into sports<br \/>\nstadiums under a government-sponsored bill due to be presented in September.<\/p>\n<p>The bill has received backing from the largest body<br \/>\nrepresenting French mayors. <\/p>\n<p>Its biggest proposed change is to the status of municipal<br \/>\npolice officers, who would be able to issue fines for serious offences<br \/>\nclassified as d\u00e9lits, instead of being limited to fines for more minor<br \/>\ncontraventions. <\/p>\n<p>As things stand, if a municipal police officer detains<br \/>\nsomeone for a d\u00e9lit, they must hand them over to either the gendarmes or the<br \/>\nnational police for the fine to be issued. <\/p>\n<p>The Association des Maires de France (AMF) wants municipal<br \/>\nofficers to be able to fine people for offences including graffiti, driving<br \/>\nwithout a licence or without insurance, and illegally occupying part of a<br \/>\nbuilding, especially where it is being used by drug dealers, rather than<br \/>\ngeneral squatting.<\/p>\n<p>Other examples include selling on the pavement, shoplifting,<br \/>\nobstructing a road, carrying and transporting illegal arms, taking fireworks or<br \/>\nalcohol into a sports stadium, invading a sports ground, and aggravated sexist<br \/>\nor sexual abuse. <\/p>\n<p>There is no guarantee, however, that the bill will be passed<br \/>\n\u2013 France has a minority government, and the powers and roles of municipal<br \/>\npolice forces have long been a political football.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>What is the difference between police and gendarmes?<\/p>\n<p>In France there are three main police services: Gendarmerie, Police nationale and Police municipale.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>La Gendarmerie\u00a0is a national force that operates from barracks, with missions typically in rural and suburban areas and on motorways. As a military force, officers are often armed and must be ready to intervene at any time.<\/li>\n<li>Police nationale\u00a0is the police service in large towns that investigates criminal and administrative offences and manages public order violations. Its officers are public officials. Its role overlaps with that of the Gendarmerie.<\/li>\n<li>Police municipale\u00a0is a local police force present in many communes that operates under the guidance of the local authority, typically to maintain public order and enforce local bylaws.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Municipal police, as we know<br \/>\nthem today, were introduced in the 1980s by a few towns and cities with<br \/>\nright-wing mayors. <\/p>\n<p>It was a protest against what were claimed to be lax law-and-order<br \/>\npolicies of then socialist president Fran\u00e7ois Mitterrand.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>From 560 municipal<br \/>\npolice officers in 1984, numbers have grown to 28,000 in 4,500 communes where<br \/>\ncouncils have voted for them. <\/p>\n<p>They are under the orders of the mayor. In 56% of communes,<br \/>\nthey are armed with guns for self-defence. <\/p>\n<p>In others, non-lethal weapons including tasers, batons and<br \/>\nflash-balls are carried.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>AMF said the proposed bill was needed because of state<br \/>\ndisengagement in matters of security over the last dozen years. <\/p>\n<p>It has meant more public safety issues are being dealt with<br \/>\nby the municipal police.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>They are notably in charge of video-surveillance in<br \/>\ntowns and cities, for example. <\/p>\n<p>However, AMF warned that unless more funding followed along<br \/>\nwith extra powers, the system would fail. <\/p>\n<p>AMF also called for gardes champ\u00eatres \u2013 officers who work on<br \/>\ntheir own in rural communes combining ordinary policing and environmental<br \/>\nprotection roles \u2013 to be included in the reform, with powers to have illegally<br \/>\nparked vehicles towed away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Agents may soon issue fines for graffiti, driving without a licence, and taking alcohol into sports stadiums Police&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-303124","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-france"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114940584278966183","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}