In the Charente-Maritime prefecture, people arrested in a state of public and obvious intoxication will have to pay a “fixed price” of 150 euros from July 1. So decided the municipality led by Mayor (Horizons) Bruno Drapron.
Saintes intends to recover the cost of the intervention of its municipal police officers obliged to take the unscrupulous to the hospital before any placement in a sobering up cell, with the police or the gendarmes. Obtaining a “certificate of non-hospitalization” after medical examination is obligatory, requires time and back and forth.
“A patrol was mobilized for an average of three hours,” says the municipality, based on the latest arrests. “And when the Saintes hospital is saturated, the patrols are forced to go to Royan or Rochefort. During this time, they are not on the ground,” says Bruno Drapron, who does not intend to “stigmatize a population. Many of those picked up have ample means to contribute to the City’s finances. The marginalized have income, unlike the homeless.”
The socialist Ludovic Norigeon, leader of the Saint-Etienne opposition, regrets “that a situation of fragility is transformed into financial punishment”, “that a human problem is treated with accounting logic”. He also points out “illusory recipes, most of the people concerned [étant] insolvent”. Bruno Drapron pleads for “common sense”, refutes all “populism” and assumes: “We are choosing to look for new recipes”.
Originally published at Almouwatin.com
